Fukyuu Shinobi
by Unknown-nin345
Summary: Naruto/Highlander cross-x. I have roamed this land for over 600 years. Now, an enemy i thought dead has returned with plans to conquer the world. It'll take all my skill and all my luck to beat him. I am Uzumaki Naruto...an immortal. NarutoX?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1-Fukyuu Shinobi

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other ideas, lines, weapons, clothes, and/or names from other books, manga, fan fictions, and/or movies.

Unknown-nin345: Hallo everybody! This is a story that started coming to me as I was writing chapter for to Koujaku Naruto. I hope you like it and be sure to leave reviews. By the way, the first word in the title means immortal. On with the words.

-- (Small warning: there will be a lemon in this chapter. You've been warned)--

______________________________________________________

I have roamed this land for over six-hundred years…

I, a soldier in battle, fought demons in battle as a Great War lay nations to waste… I studied with the Muttsu Seijins when chakra was discovered. Long after those I fought with and cared for, had died… I drove back war-bent Uchiha, spilling their blood on the soil of my adopted home country.

Factions have come and gone. Enemies, risen and fallen. Friends gained and lost. Yet I survive.

My blade defends those in my life whom I consider to be precious to me. Others may lose their head in the heat of battle, but not I (as much).

My name…is Uzumaki Naruto…and I am immortal.

They say there can be only one.

I say, "You'll have to take my head first."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Konohagakure, Hokage Tower-

At a large wooden desk sat the most powerful shinobi in Konoha: The Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato. Currently he is fighting the greatest battle of any Hokage's worst nightmare- Paperwork. However, he had discovered a way to defeat it and had been using that method for the past year now. Its name was Kage Bushin no Jutsu.

Signing the last paper, the real Minato looked up and saw the bushin he had assigned to civilian matters of the village had finished as well. He promptly dismissed the clone and sat back with eyes closed as the information streamed into his head. When it finished he stood up with a relieved sigh and turned to look out the window, which offered a spectacular view of the village he had sworn to defend, with the sun beginning to set.

He stood in silence and watched the colors of the falling sun on the horizon before addressing the seemingly empty room. "You stay invisible like that; I'm going to have to forcibly eject you from this office." There was no acknowledgement to his statement until…

A section of the wall near the edge of the wide window blurred before revealing the intruder. He stood at an impressive height of 6'5''. His midnight-black hair had two upside-down triangle bangs on both sides of his face with a small bit sticking up on top, the rest pulled back into a long ponytail that was wrapped in a white cloth(A/N: Think Rey Yan from The Cursed Sword Chronicles but with midnight-black hair.). He wore a steel-colored shirt covered by a black, sleeveless trench coat that had gold linings. On his legs were dark blue shinobi pants with the ends also wrapped in white tape. Covering his left leg was a picture of a golden thunderbird that seemed to crackle with electricity. Mirrored on his left leg was a crimson-orange firebird whose wings seemed to be wreathed in flame. A spiraling jade dragon could be seen on the back of his trench coat, with each reptilian scale depicted in great detail. Strapped to his back was a dai-katana, its hilt was carved from a white wood and held the appearance of a dragon's head baring its fangs. The sheath, which extended from just above his shoulder to the length of his knee was depicted to look like an icy wind, complete with sparkling sapphire snowflakes.

His face was what any female would describe as the perfect blend of handsome, sexy, and rugged (a/n: though I wouldn't know.). His eyes were truly something to get lost in; they were a blend of humbleness, wisdom, compassion, and ingenuity. Yet for all of these were small amounts of pain and sadness of someone who had lost many loved ones in the ocean-like (both in color and in depth) blue eyes the man possessed.

Upon his forehead rested the hitai-ate that bore the Kanji: Kasuka no Hogosha, rumored to have belonged to one of the Muttsu Seijin.

Topping off his ensemble was an ornate silver amulet. It bore the visage of a snarling wolf's head, a reminder of the first woman he had come to love.

He was Uzumaki Naruto, an over 2,000 year-old immortal.

"I'm wounded that you would do such a thing." He put his hand over his heart, "It hurts me right here you know." He sniffed, fake tears coming on.

The blonde Hokage rolled his eyes in exasperation "Sometimes I find it hard to believe you're over 2,000 years old."

The immortal shrugged, "You simply learn to roll with the punches that life throws at you." His face hardened voice turning serious, "But I'm sorry to say I didn't come here to exchange witty banter gaki." The Yondaime turned to face Naruto, when he spoke seriously you'd better listen, as he continued, "I don't know how but Uchiha Madara is still alive, even though I was pretty sure I had killed him a long time ago. I can only assume he became an immortal like me." Silence descended as the fire-shadow of Konoha digested this, but then saw the look on Naruto's face. "He's trying to locate her cave."

Dread twisted Minato's stomach into a cold knot. Her cave?! Man, if Madara survived that encounter, the man would have his respect.

Naruto continued relaying the information he received from his network, "From what I can remember of him, he'll no doubt do something that will piss her off. We should expect an attack because I wouldn't put it past him to tell her that he was sent by Konoha and then lead her here just to spite us."

The Yondaime nodded "And we won't be able to just simply kill her, plus it'll be damn near impossible to defeat her in a fight."

"Yeah, all of the Bijuu were once human immortals."

Minato looked at the immortal shocked, "Really? You never mentioned that before."

"Well, you never asked." Naruto grinned cheekily, "But, yeah. There were about 13 or 14 that I knew were on the human's side back during the Great Demon War. By now, there's probably a little over 200 immortals in the elemental nations. Anyway, around the time the Sages discovered chakra and jutsu were being invented; Kami came and offered positions to the 14 of us. Nine were offered to become guardians of certain areas, they became the Kyuu Bijuu. Three were given the choice to become bosses of certain summon animals; I think they were for the slugs, wolves, and eagles. Those 12 were given animal forms to shift in to."

"What about you and the other person?"

He gained a far away look, "The last two of our group were me and…my aniki. He had been approached by Kajishukun-sama, the King of Dragons to become the boss of the dragon summons. While I had been approached by Kami-sama herself for the position of the ten-tail Bijuu." he paused clearly remembering the day, "She was sooo fucking hot." Minato turned red, imagining what Kami must have looked like, "Anyway, we both turned down our offers."

Minato was truly shocked, "What!! Why the fuck would turn down those kinds of offers?"

Naruto didn't say anything for a minute, "Minato. Do you remember the three 'laws' about immortals that I told you?"

He nodded, "Yeah. One-They can only die with the loss of their head. Two-An immortal will gain more power by cutting off other immortals head. 3-An immortal is only allowed one child."

Naruto continued, "Well, my aniki refused because, he was married and his wife was pregnant with their child. The offer would only allow him the dragon form and he didn't want to leave his wife and unborn child by themselves. Aniki wanted to be there for all the moments of his child's life, the first words and steps, his child getting married, and seeing his child's children."

Minato nodded, if he would only get to have one child he'd want to spend as much time with it as he could as well.

Naruto suddenly sighed, "Then, Aniki's wife was killed, before the baby had even been born…

---------------Flashback--------------------------

Two figures could be seen dragging between them two deer thru a lush forest, their dinner for the night. The two were talking about nothing in general as they walked along the path back to the cabin where the wife of one of them was waiting for them.

"So aniki, have you decided on a name for the child yet?" asked a younger Naruto.

His older brother, whose name was Uzumaki Kohaku, nodded, "Hai. If it's a girl we decided to name it Uzumaki Hoshiko. If it's a boy he'll be named after tou-san." He was built like a bear, with ruddy amber hair that shined.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Uzumaki Daichi?"

"Hai."

They continued the walk in silence as they came up on the cabin. But as soon as they exited the woods they stopped, feeling the familiar 'buzz' they'd come to associate with an immortal. Quickly drawing their respective swords, Kohaku his daikatana and Naruto a tai chi sword. They rushed over to the house. Seeing no one inside they moved around to one side just in time to see a cloaked figure flee from the back of the house over to the woods. Naruto quickly rushed after the figure while Kohaku moved at a slower pace incase there was another attacker who had hung back. While Naruto continued off to the forest, missing the form against the wall. Kohaku, who had looked at it however, froze and sank to his knees with his sword falling from his grasp.

Naruto who had felt his brother not follow him, turned around before freezing as well uttering a quiet "No."

Pinned up against the wall was the slashed form of Uzumaki Naomi, Kohaku's wife.

The husband of the dead women seemed to suddenly realize his love was dead as a great wail/shout rose from him. He cried out over his wife's death while Naruto stuck his sword in the ground and knelt, lowering his head to the ground as tears dripped from his eyes as well. It was like with Kaa-san all over again.

They stayed like that for a while before Naruto stood up and moved over to his older brother. His head was bent down to the ground, his tears had stopped falling, not from wanting to stop, but from being used for too long

Naruto laid a hand on his brother's shoulder, rousing him from his silence. "C'mon. We should build her a pyre. Give her a proper sending off." Kohaku nodded and stood up laboriously. They proceeded to take out the items that were pinning her to the wall of the cabin, and gently laid her down on the earth.

Kohaku went inside to grab a towel and proceeded to clean the blood off of her. Naruto started to gather wood for the burning of her body. Each was silent as they worked, except for a choked sob coming from the elder Uzumaki when he discovered that Naomi had been slashed twice at her expanded stomach, there was no chance for mother or unborn child.

After a while Naruto had gather sufficient wood for the pyre and set it up for what they were about to do, pouring oil on the wood. When he finished, the sun was setting and Kohaku had yet to leave his wife's side. He had wiped off all the blood and now he simply stared at her features. Naruto went over to him, holding up a torch, and told him the pyre was ready. His answer was a nod as Kohaku picked up his wife and carried her over to place her on the wood. He stepped back and motioned for the torch. When he was handed it he stared into the flickering flames a bit before he thrust it into the wood, leaving it in there as he backed up.

Together they watched as the fire spread in silence when Kohaku decided to speak up, "Naruto. I want you to grab my sword."

Confused at his brother's request, he nevertheless did as he was told and walked over to where it had been left in the ground. When he came back and tried to hand it back he was stopped, "Naruto, I want you take my head."

"What!!?"

He turned over to look at his younger brother and Naruto was shocked at his eyes, they looked empty "I want to go with her. The only way I can do that is if you take my head."

Naruto shook his head, "I..I can't do it aniki. I can't kill you."

Kohaku smiled a bit, "You won't be killing me. I'll still live on in you, and in my sword. Naruto after you take my head I want you to wield my sword. Use it to defend your precious people. Wield it and keep true to what you believe in. I know you will become a great person."

He got down on both knees, with his hands resting on them. "Please otoutou."

Naruto saw that he wouldn't be dissuaded and quickly engulfed his older brother in the last hug he would ever receive from him. With tears flowing he stood to the side of Kohaku, "Goodbye Ni-san."

His older brother smiled softly, "Never say goodbye, because we will meet again. Remember that, and tell me when you come up that you made me an Uncle. Okay Naruto."

He smiled through his tears and quickly brought the sword down, cleaving the head from the body. Moving quickly, before the Quickening started he picked up the body and lay it next to his wife's. Then, jerkingly, he picked up the head as well and put it in the flames. He then moved away as lightning started striking the ground around him. He fell to his knees as several bolts struck him and yelled out in pain, rage, and sorrow.

When the Quickening ended, he stayed on his knees for a minute before standing. Moving over to his brother's daikatana he picked it up and looked back at the pyre that still burned bright. He faced it completely and drew the sword across his hand, "I promise aniki, on this blood that I let fall, that I will hunt down and kill the person who did this. You have my word brother. Ni su'cuyi, gar kyr'adyc, ni partayli, gar darasuum**(1)** Kohaku."

Running a rag over the blade, he sheathed the sword and walked away as the fire burned behind him.

-------------Flashback End------------------------------

There was silence in the office as the Yondaime Hokage processed this tale and Naruto remembered the saddest day in his very long life.

The Yondaime spoke, "Why'd you refuse Kami-sama's offer?"

Naruto shook his head, smiling ruefully, "She said that in return for the power I would be granted, every 300 years I'd have to come before her and do all the paperwork she has at the moment I arrive."

The Yondaime frowned, "Well sure, I can see why you wouldn't want to do paperwork but it wasn't that bad was it?"

"Minato. ONE stack of Kami's paperwork is as tall as the Hokage Tower, doing all the paperwork of Kami would take seventy years at best. There was no way in hell I would be doing all that."

The blonde Hokage sweatdropped while paling in fright.

He cleared his throat as they moved on, "Hmm, okay then."

Naruto spoke seriously, "We still have to prepare for a possible Kyuubi attack. Plus, since she can't be killed except by getting her human head cut off we'll most likely have to seal her."

"In what?"

Naruto shrugged, "What else? A human would be the only thing strong enough to hold any Bijuu over four-tails." He put his hand to his chin, "I don't think it should be powerful enough to last forever. We just need to give her some time to cool down."

The Yondaime agreed, "Very well. Still, how are we going to do this?"

"Well, from what my information network gathered, he shouldn't get to the cave until two weeks from now, then we will have at most a week before she reaches Konoha." He grinned and started pushing a protesting Minato out of the room, "So go spend some time with your wife. We'll start working on a seal in two days. Go on, have some fun."

He walked off, leaving a stunned Hokage who decided to take his advice and spend some quality time with his wife.

We find Naruto walking down a street, remembering a time long ago, during the demon wars of the time when he first met Hinoiri Akane, the immortal woman who would become the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

-----------------------Flashback-------------------------------------------

Smoke rose from random buildings around him as he walked through the war torn town. It had been six years since the start of the Great Demon Wars and this town had become a popular fighting ground a year ago. There wasn't much in the area except for some broken down buildings and rubble from the destroyed ones.

He sighed. No one knew why demons were attacking the human realm instead of staying in Makai fighting there. Currently he was on patrol to see if any demons were preparing a base in the rubble, dressed in body armor the Shodaime of Konoha would come to wear, minus the shoulder pads and without having received the silver amulet yet. So far there hadn't been any sightings. He was just about to turn back as he reached the designated spot he was supposed to search to when he felt it. The buzz that only came with one thing.

There was another immortal nearby.

He was looking around when he heard screams. He forgot about the potential immortal and rushed with his sword drawn to the direction of the screams. When he reached the spot the screams were coming from his blood boiled.

A woman, about 22 to 23 years old was being raped by two Tora demons. The Tora demons stood on two legs wearing opened vests and ripped shorts, proudly displaying their black stripes on orange fur. One was holding her arms behind her back while the other was assaulting her uncovered breasts, leaving miniature scratches all over them from his fangs.. Thankfully they hadn't started on the woman's lower region yet.

With blood burning, he rushed in and with a quick swipe one was without a head. The second was released the woman who quickly scurried out of the way and leaned against a wall trying to cover her exposed chest.

The tora demon started snarling at Naruto, "You messed with our fun."

Naruto replied, "With your definition of _fun_. How could I not?" Spiting out _fun_.

"You'll pay for this ningen." with that, he leapt with sharp claws at Naruto, who dodged out of the demons path.

"Sorry, but I'm all out of cash." He lashed out with his tai-chi blade, gaining a cut at the tiger's shoulder.

The tiger swiped at him, prompting him to block the sharp claws. He punched at the demons face but his hand was grabbed by the demons other hand. He was thrown over the demons shoulder, rolled a bit, before getting up, and crouched a few feet away. He stood up and swept at the demon as it came closer, but the tiger knocked his sword away and lashed out with his claws, gaining blood as he struck Naruto across the chest making a shallow wound. They both jumped back and stared each other down, blood dripping from the wounds they had given each other. They rushed back into the fight, each gaining small cuts and slashes when finally Naruto gained a decisive blow. The tora demon howled in pain as it's left hand was cut off, blood falling out of the severed arm. The demon lashed out at Naruto with his other hand only to get it cut off up 'till the elbow. Now, with no arms the demon knelt defeated, with crimson blood pooling around his knees, dyeing the fur red.

Naruto, with a face of stone, stepped up to the demon. Without pause, he thrust his sword through the tiger's heart, then pulled the sword out and spinning around severed the head from the body, with small droplets of blood falling on his face.

He stood still before taking out a rag and ran it over his sword followed by his face, cleaning both of blood. With a flourish, he sheathed the sword into the sheath hanging from his hip.

With a sigh, he brought his hand to his chest feeling the shallow wounds and thanking Kami for inventing armor. Looking around he saw the woman still huddled against the wall. He moved towards her slowly, hands in the air to show he didn't mean any harm. When was a couple feet in front of her he sat down, he noticed that she didn't make any movements away from him which was a good sign from someone who had almost been raped.

He decided to speak up, "Daijobu desu ka?"

The woman nodded her head shakily, "I'm fine. O namae wa?"

Naruto smiled, "Boku no name wa Uzumaki Naruto desu." He pulled off his armor followed by his shirt and handed the shirt to her, "Here, think you might want this." She grabbed it and Naruto turned around so that she could have some privacy then asked, "What's your name?"

The girl pulled on the shirt and answered, "I'm Hinoiri Akane." She smiled slightly, "You can turn around now Naruto-san." He did so, "So, Naruto-san."

"Hai?"

"Just how long have you been alive?"

He looked flustered; "Ehrm, well I think it's been about 23 years." He said unconvincingly and blushed knowing it.

Akane laughed, "Sure you are." She turned serious, "I know you're an immortal Naruto-san."

"Please, just Naruto or Naruto-kun. Anyway, how?"

"How do you think? I felt the buzz of an immortal approach, next think I now, the fucking tora attacking my tits has his head cut off and there you are with a sword, fighting the other one."

Naruto gained an understanding look, "Aaahh, so it was you I felt when I was patrolling. Well, if you tell me how many times you died, I'll tell you how many times I've died." As she was about to speak however, Naruto suddenly held up a hand, "On second thought, maybe we should head to where I'm currently staying, then we can talk."

She giggled then stood up, Naruto imitating her and he slipped on his armor. Together they set off to Naruto's house that was on the outskirts of town, close to a river and nearby woods.

- (A walk later)-

They had arrived at the house after narrowly avoiding another Tora demon. Now they stood before the house, which was small and cozy since Naruto lived by himself. He held open the door for her, inviting her in. When she stepped through the door, she could feel the cozy-ness of the house.

The furniture looked comfortable and had cheery colors that didn't stick out against the walls. There were several potted plants around the room and a nodachi that was hanging on the wall. Even as she walked in and through some of the rooms, the cozy feeling didn't abate. When she turned around, she saw that Naruto was standing at the door, looking a little nervous at having her in his home.

Gathering himself he started conversation, "Well, what do you think?"

She looked around a bit before looking at him and smiling brightly, "I love it. It's very cozy in here and whose sword is that hanging on the wall over there?"

Naruto gained a solemn look on his face as he approached the nodachi, "It belonged to my kaa-san. She and tou-san were Kenjutsu masters, him with twin hook swords and kaa-san with this nodachi."

There was silence as Akane didn't know what to say and Naruto was lost in memories. "They're both dead." He said suddenly, "Tou-san died three years into the war and Kaa-san…she was killed back when I was twelve, about four years before the demons started attacking. That was also when I found out I was an immortal. Four Inu demons attacked while tou-san and aniki were out hunting. They overpowered Kaa-san, and one held me as he forced me to watch the other three raped my mother." His fist clenched so hard he started drawing blood and tears started falling from his eyes. "Kaa-san never shed tears when they were raping her, she just did her best to keep looking at me. After they finished with her they stabbed her with this blade, and then stabbed me in the heart as well."

Behind him, Akane was crying as well, and had her hands covering her mouth. She came up behind him and wrapped her arms around him, "I'm sorry Naruto-kun. I didn't know this would bring up bad memories for you." She just continued to hold him as he still stared straight ahead at the sword of his mother, with tears still falling down both faces.

Shaking himself from the depressing memories, Naruto moved himself out of Akane's arms and wiped the tears from his eyes with Akane mimicking him. He smiled and nodded at her, "Anyway, I said we'd come here and tell each other how many times we've died so that's what we'll do." He gestured for her to sit on the coach while he went into the kitchen to get some sake. "Just give me a second to get some sake."

She nodded and sat down on the coach reflecting on what she just learned, _'Wow. He went through that when he was only twelve. I guess now I know why he fights. But I wonder how old he really is.'_ She looked up when she heard him coming back with two bottles of sake.

With a grateful nod, she accepted one of the bottles as he sat down on the nearby chair. After a moment of comfortable silence Akane started to speak, "I didn't die until I was fifteen, a year into the war. It had been a raid on one of the demon camps and I was caught by surprise when I was stabbed from behind. I woke up a while later and looked down to see that all I had was a scar from the stab." She lifted up the shirt so that Naruto could see that there was a diagonal scar in the middle of her stomach. "Since then I've only died one other time and right now I am 20 years old." she finished as she lowered the shirt she got from Naruto.

Naruto nodded and said, "Well, after I had been killed the first time, Aniki had to explain that I was now immortal like him."

"Wait, your brother was immortal as well?" Akane interrupted.

"Hai. But tou-san and kaa-san were both mortal so we just assume its luck that I and aniki were both immortal." He shrugged, "As for my number of deaths, I already got 6, not counting my first death. Most were from inexperienced fighting, although one was because I drank to much sake in a contest; thankfully they only thought I went into a short coma." He smiled, "As for my age, I think I'm either 22 or 23 so I wasn't really lying when I told you earlier." He stretched out in the chair, Akane admiring his muscles, and said, "Well, you're welcome to stay as long as you want. I don't know when I'll be shipped out to a different battlefield, so until then you can crash here okay?"

She nodded gratefully, "Arigatou Naruto-kun. I needed a place to stay anyway; those tora demons had chased me from my camp."

"Well make yourself at home Akane-chan. The guest room is over there." He said indicating a door over to the left. She nodded again and kissed him on the cheek in thanks before retreating into the guest room.

Naruto was stunned by the kiss and raised his hand up to his cheek before a silly grin spread on his face. He leaned back into the reclining chair and put his hands behind his head. He was glad he'd gone on patrol today.

-Later that evening-(Lemon warning, skip if you don't want to read, otherwise say nothing)

Naruto lay in his bed that night, thinking on the day he had just gone through. He had told somebody something he had told no other person and this somebody he had just met. He closed his eyes and sighed, there was just something about her that just made him feel at ease around her, as if nothing bad could happen. This was very confusing.

In his deep level of pondering, he didn't hear the door to his room slowly and silently open to reveal Akane, dressed only in a large white t-shirt and black thong. She shut the door behind her and crept up to the bed. Only when she laid down on it did Naruto realize her presence, any remark or question was stopped at her appearance. He was further kept from saying anything when Akane leaned in and captured his lips in a heated kiss. It took him only a split second to respond by kissing back, electricity shooting through them. The need for oxygen forced them apart and she breathed into his ear, "I wanted to properly thank you. Please…enjoy this." With that, she licked his earlobe gaining shivers from him as she continued down his neck and lightly nibbling on his nipple. She continued down his abs, stopping to trail a slow spiral down to his belly-button, then moved onto the waistband of his boxers where she noticed that was she was doing was greatly pleasing him. The boxers were pulled down to show Naruto's seven ½ inch member standing straight up, ready to serve. She lightly licked the tip of his dick, before trailing her tongue it and back up leaving Naruto pleasured. Kissing it she started to engulf it in her mouth and began to bob her head up and down slowly, raking her teeth at different parts bringing the black-haired man closer to the edge. He saw white when Akane started humming while speeding up her bobbing, within a minute he cummed filling her mouth with his fluid. Bringing her head up she made a sight of sensually swallowing the salty, slightly sweet cum.

She suddenly found herself on the bottom with her lips being ravaged by Naruto's. He licked her lips, begging for entrance. She parted hers slightly, allowing the two lover's tongues to explore each other's mouths. As the kiss raged on Naruto, who had placed his hands her firm ass, was slowly sliding up the red-haired beauties white shirt. They had to stop kissing a quick second so they could get her shirt over her head, when it was off she wrapped her arms around his neck as they continued kissing, while Naruto cupped her round c-cup boobs. He started to squeeze and roll them, making Akane moan into the kiss. Breaking off from her, Naruto proceeded to start leaving butterfly kisses down her neck and should before moving down to her twins. When he reached them, he began sucking on one with his other hand pinching the hardened nipple of the other tit, with Akane moaning and pushing his head closer to her tits, loving his ministrations. He then switched to the other, repeating the treatment he had given to the first mound and moving his now free hand down to where her thong still covered her womanhood. Without pause, he began to rub Akane's vagina thru the thin fabric of the black thong, feeling that she was already wet down there.

He came up suddenly, getting a frustrated groan Akane who had been very close to release, before moving down to her where her luscious lower lips lay and began to slowly peel off the black thong. With it removed he descended and pecked his way up her left leg, then repeated it over on the right leg when his head was grabbed and shoved into Akane's pussy who had started to get frustrated with the teasing, "Start licking my pussy damnit! Your teasing is driving insane!" He decided to do so and did as she said, gained mews and moans from the red-haired beauty. During his licking, he discovered a little nub that seemed to put her in more pleasure, so he brought up two fingers and inserted them into the wet folds before he began to pump them in and out. He then descended on the nub and sucked on it, "Aaahh, fuck yeah. Right there Naruto-kun! Suck right there!" He didn't disappoint. As he felt her getting close, he decided to add another finger suddenly and sped up gaining a scream as she came hard.

Naruto licked his cum covered fingers and said, "Why Akane-chan, you're such a screamer. And you taste so sweet as well." He let her suck on his last finger then brought himself up to kiss her, tasting her on her tongue. Pulling up he looked in her lust shining eyes, "Akane-chan, do you want to continue? We can stop right now, even though you can't get pregnant."

She shook her head, "No Naruto-kun. We started so we might as well finish."

He nodded as he positioned his dick at the entrance of her pussy and slowly pushed in, making Akane give out a long, drawn-out moan. He stopped when he felt her hymen and looked up at her, silently asking. At her nod, he moved his mouth onto a nipple and started nibbling and sucking it before he broke her barrier. Her pain was limited to only a small cry and few tears since she was gaining pleasure from the tit suckling. After a couple of seconds, she tapped Naruto so that he knew he could continue.

With a smile, he started to pull out and pound into her, speeding up at her insistence. For Akane, she had never before felt anything as good as this if her moans and shouts of "Yes! Keep fucking me Naru-kun!!" along with repeated cries of "Faster!". Naruto looked down at her from above as he continued to pound his dick into her pussy, and watched her tits bounce up and down with each thrust.

After what seemed like an hour of being, fucked Akane could feel her release coming. Naruto could as well from the way her walls seemed to tighten around his dick. Together the came and cried "Naruto-kun/Akane-chan!"

When they finished they fell to the bed, and pulled the blanket over them. Together they went to sleep, Naruto's dick still inside Akane.

--------------------End Flashback----------------------------------- (Lemon's over now)

Naruto had come to a stop now on top of the Hokage Monument, fingering the wolf pendant Akane had given him when she had left the next day. She said she didn't want them to delude each other into a relationship where nothing could be gained. He had argued saying that plenty could be gained from being together. Akane had gained a sad look, turned her head to the ground and whispered, "But not children." Naruto decided not to press the issue and simply walked over to where his Kaa-san's nodachi hung. He unhooked it from the wall, unsheathed it and had said that it had protected his mother well. He re-sheathed it and turned to her saying that he hoped it would do the same for her. She had taken it, but not without giving him the wolf amulet to remember her by. As he watched her go, he felt a terrible pain in his heart, one he had not felt since the day his kaa-san had died.

Back on the monument, he looked up at the stars and let some tears be shed. He knew that in that very short amount of time he had fallen in love. He only wished he had taken a firmer hold on it.

He shook his head banishing those thoughts, _'I know I might never love someone like her. But I said I would try. (sigh) Even now it still hurts.'_ He looked out over the village he had come to call home, ever since it had been a small group of huts trying to hide from the Uchiha army way back 600 years ago. Now, it was a large hidden village for shinobi that was considered one of the five great nations.

As he turned to leave the sight, he had a feeling that his life was going to take a turn for the worst.

If only he knew how right, he would be.

________________________________________________________________________

**End of First Chapter- READ THE AUTHOR NOTES**

**Well, there you go. The first chapter of my Naruto/Highlander crossover. Hope you liked it, now to clear up some things that probably have you confused.**

**1-Naruto's age-**

**-he was twelve when he became immortal. (Age 12)**

**-four years later the Great Demon War started. (Age 16) the demon wars last for 15 years.**

**-Six years after the start of the war, he meets Akane (Naruto: age 22/23, Akane: age 20/21)**

**-in the first flash back it's been about 10 months after the offer he mentioned that was proposed to the 14 immortals to become Bijuu/Summon bosses(Age 404, 300 years after end of demon war.)**

**-Present time/3 weeks before Kyuubi attack (2,097 years old)**

**Two-Don't worry, for those who know the three 'real' rules for the Immortals, I'll explain what changed the third rule next chapter.**

**Three-The Japanese words (besides the obvious ones)**

**-Kasuka no Hogosha = Protector of the weak.**

**-Kajishukun = fire-lord/master**

**Hinoiri Akane = Beautiful red Sunset**

**Uzumaki Kohaku(naruto's aniki) = Amber Whirlpool**

**Daichi/Hoshiko(Kohaku's unborn child) = Great first son/star child**

**Uzumaki Naomi (Kohaku's wife) = beautiful whirlpool.**

**Daijobu desu ka? = Are you okay?**

**O namae wa? = what's your name?**

**Boku no name wa Uzumaki Naruto desu = My name is Uzumaki Naruto.**

**4- What being immortal is-**

**Basically, for those who have not heard of Highlander, Immortals cannot die except for when their heads are chopped off. Immortals sense one another with a feeling called the Buzz, which is just a buzz that goes off when one immortal senses another. When one immortal cuts off another's head they gain the immortals power, a process called the Quickening (the whole lighting strikes the immediate area around the victor.)**

**I think that's just about everything. So let me know what you think. Should I continue this? Because this is just a small (well, not so much) thing that came to me, I can continue this but I would like to know what you think. If so then that tells me, you appreciate my writing, if not then oh well. **

**(1)= I'm still alive, but you are dead. I remember you, so you are eternal. –Mandalorian-**

**So PLLLLEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAASSSSSSEEEEEEEE review.**

**\/**

**\/ \/**

**(Push the blue button)**

**\/ \/ \/**

**(You know you want to) **

**\/ \/ \/ \/\/ **

**(Please?)**

**\/**


	2. Chapter 2

Fukyuu Shinobi- Chapter 2

**Unknown-nin345: Hey everyone! Thanks, those that did, for reviewing the First chapter of the first Naruto/Highlander crossover. Some had questions (sort of) in their reviews, I'm gonna give an answer to some that did. (Those who want to see the questions; you'll have to check what the reviews were)**

**scione: If you read the summary you'll see that I have this labeled as a Naruto X ?. This is because at the moment I'm not sure who Naruto's going to be with, after all Akane did say she didn't want to enter a relationship because they wouldn't be able to have children. **

**Phnx: You'll find out ****this**** chapter.**

**grumpywinter: I've already got plans for Duncan and even Methos in the story. Good idea though.**

**DarkSoulReaver: Naruto's hair is black because he's not Minato's son in this fic. Alternate Universe okay? Also yes, you were right. Immortals do stop physically aging after their first death, found out a couple days after you left your review. Kinda late too input that now though.**

**Me- Now without further due, Chapter 2 of Fukyuu Shinobi! (20th Century Fox trumpet fanfare)**

_**(psst. It's rated m for a reason)**_

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Hokage's office-

The office looked like a tornado had hit it. There were papers and scrolls laying everywhere, coffee cups littered the ground of the office as the two friends searched for a seal that would be able to contain the Kyuubi no Kitsune if- no, when it attacked. Unfortunately the results are less than stellar.

"Gah! God damnit, how hard should it be to find a seal that can contain a nine-tailed giant fox!?"

Naruto looked up from his scroll with a blank expression, "Apparently…very hard." He ducked as a paperweight went sailing towards his head.

"That was a rhetorical question teme!" Minato shouted feeling very frustrated. They had spent 5 days in the room after Minato had come in to his office after spending the day before the start of the search with his wife. In those five days that hadn't really discovered much that could help. Aside from the seal that would play the part of calming the, most likely, fury-induced fox down when they had found the seal to contain her.

And even though our black-haired immortal had been around since chakra had first been discovered didn't mean he remembered every little detail of what had been developed, so he couldn't really provide an answer.

So here they were for the past five days, only stopping for sleep at their homes, looking over all the old scrolls and old tomes located in the Hokage tower. They had already shifted through the more recent ones and were starting to read into the really old, moldy ones.

Minato stood and ran a hand thru his hair, "Sorry about that. This is just driving me crazy! I'm starting to think there isn't even a seal that can contain the Kyuubi anyway." He spun to face Naruto, "And even if we do find a seal, what will we seal her into? Even I know that any Bijuu over the Yonbi can't be sealed into an inanimate object."

Naruto nodded, "Yeah. The only things Gobi thru Kyuubi can be sealed into are humans." He raised a hand to stop Minato from speaking, "But, the Shichibi to Kyuubi can only be sealed into newborns. They're the only organisms whose chakra won't be overwhelmed by the massive chakra-stores from the Bijuu. So, unless we got a newborn being born right now, we're out of luck."

Minato brought his hand up and cupped his chin, "Wait, can't she be sealed into you? I mean, you're immortal, in a way, so you shouldn't die from it right?"

Naruto snorted in amusement, "Sure, I'll just forever lose the ability to use chakra, sort of like that Rock Lee kid that was born last year."

"Damn." He sighed and looked out the window to his village to think. Suddenly an idea came to him "What if we could make you a newborn?"

The immortal shinobi leaned back and considered it, "In theory it could work. In theory of course. You'd have to develop seal that could change my identity as well." When Minato looked over in confusion he answered, "I have a bunch of immortals looking to cut off my head; I think it would be best if I had a different appearance."

The blonde Hokage nodded at the logic, "Okay, so we develop a seal to change how you look, and then one to make you a newborn again, finally one that will contain the Kyuubi until you allow her to be free. That it?"

Naruto nodded, "Yep, but if Madara's made it to Akane's den yet then we only have less than a weak to find these three seals."

Minato shrugged, "Well the identity-changing seal will be the easiest to make so we really only have to focus on the de-aging seal and the containment seal."

Their discussion was interrupted by the distinctive 'poofs' of the Shushin no Jutsu. Standing before them were three members of the ANBU black ops. All three looked like they had gone through Maito Ryoku's extreme fitness regimen.

Gathering his breath the Anbu with an Oushi **(a/n: ox)** mask spoke, "(huff) Hokage…sama. Anbu squad 4 reporting in. We have big news."

Minato looked over the squad and asked, "Where is Kijuuki **(a/n: crane)**? She isn't with you." Naruto however felt dread begin to settle in his stomach, he could feel small amounts of the energy specific to immortals, and it felt…very familiar.

Washi **(a/n: eagle)** spoke up next, "It was during our patrol sir. We were finished and just about to head home when we saw a foreign traveler on the road. He bore no shinobi hitai-ate but he moved like one and he was garbed in armor that looked like samurai armor but, without the leg guards (Naruto's jaw tightened as he grew pale). So we decided to follow him discreetly and at a distance. He stopped before this huge rock face that was near the border of Iwa. He ran his hands over the rock before he stepped back and black flames seemed to appear at a random point on the rock wall." He paused to take a breath and continued, "A tunnel seemed to suddenly appear where the flames struck and he proceeded to move down it. Kijuuki and I moved down to the entrance of the tunnel after waiting a minute or so. When we looked in we saw that the tunnel sloped down and this person descending into the depths. We applied camouflaging jutsus and followed. He stopped after about 30 yards of walking. As we approached closer we saw that the tunnel broadened before abruptly spreading out into a huge cave. This man walked up to a red mound in the middle of the room. As he moved closer the mound shifted and was revealed to be a giant fox, with nine tails!" By now both Minato and Naruto stood stock still as the tale was told, "The man said something that we couldn't hear because we hadn't moved from out spot. The large fox suddenly laughed, and roared something back at the man, it sounded like it was questioning what the man had just said. Apparently whatever the man repeated angered the Kitsune because it brought down its claws to kill the man. We don't know if the man was killed or not because Kijuuki and I rushed back out to the surface. Once we got there the cliff crumbled behind us, showing the nine-tailed Kitsune with its tails waving angrily. It caught sight of us and slammed one of its tails down. I was thrown out of the way by Kijuuki who was… crushed by the blow." Washi stopped after he said this.

The Anbu with the Tora mask picked up on the story, "We then proceeded to...err... initiate a tactical retreat and hastily made our way back here. The Kitsune didn't even try to chase us. It roared out to us that it would get here eventually and that we would all perish for that man's arrogance. From where it is right now, I'd say we have little over a week before it reaches the point where we would be able to see it from the walls."

Minato nodded his head grimly, "Thank you for getting this information to me. I'll make sure Kijuuki is placed on the memorial stone for sacrificing herself so that you all could make it back. Now, I want you to go and alert the other Anbu in the village and only the Anbu. Also spread word among them that they are, under no circumstances, to tell anyone about what is going to happen and that they should not have any sake at all between now and the attack. I don't need loose-lipped fools generating panic. Dismissed!"

"Hai!" The three Anbu of squad 4 dispersed to fulfill the orders given to them by their leader.

Naruto and Minato looked at each other then out of the large window to observe the leaping figures of the Anbu squad they had just had reporting in to them. Naruto spoke up, "I think maybe you should invent that de-aging seal while I search thru the oldest tomes to see if I can find the containment seal we need. I think that might be easier since you're the seal master of the two of us."

Minato nodded, "Agreed, this would have been a fun project to do if it wasn't being done to combat a Bijuu."

His black-haired friend smiled, "It's always been fun to make a new seal. Too bad this might be our last time doing it." With that the two men, one a great shinobi; the other an immortal of many years set to work on getting the final two pieces they needed to what would be their only hope for stopping the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

As the week progressed Minato mad very good progress with the de-aging seal, using rats and other rodents no one cares about he tested the effects of the seal. Thankfully the only thing he had to adjust with it was how far back it would take the person/animal the seal was attached to, but he found that it could only be used once after a rat that he had used the seal twice on aged far faster than normal and died within two days. He discussed this with Naruto who said that it was possible the cells of the organism, having been speedily spun backwards in time more than once were trying to forcibly get back to their original time-form.

Also while Minato had been making good progress, Naruto's had been less than good. He had so far found only one seal that could possibly seal Akane into him, but the way it was designed would have her soul merge with his over a period of time. Seeing that it was the only one with enough power he brought it before Minato and discussed what they would do about it. While looking it over they saw that since the seal would take out the soul of the target they could place a preservation seal on Akane's body so that when she had finally cooled down from her rage she would have a body to move into and find some way to make sure that her chakra would be separate from Naruto's.

They decided that this would be the best they would get and with a few modifications they would have their tri-set of seals ready for when Akane would attack. All that needed to be done was to combine the three of them so that they wouldn't interfere with each other.

___The day of the Kyuubi attack___

As Minato and Naruto stood on top of one of Konohagakure's great walls they observed the coming approach of the dreaded Kyuubi no Kitsune, or better known to Naruto as Hinoiri Akane. As the large Kitsune continued it's march to Konoha they could see the sporadic fire of different elemental jutsu ranging from the common katon jutsus to the sparse raiton and fuuton jutsus.

Seeing the power of Akane in her nine-tailed form Naruto couldn't help but remember the day when she and the other 12 immortals had been given their positions as the Kyuu Bijuu and for three of them places as Bosses of certain summon animals.

----Flashback to 50 years after the Six Sages discovered chakra-----

Naruto sighed as he walked through a lush forest along a beaten up path, "Damn fangirls. Why did Kami choose to create them, they're so freaking relentless." Upon closer inspection, we can see that his clothes bare multiple rips and that his face was covered in red kiss shaped marks that had been undoubtedly made by a group of women that had been named: fangirls.

He glanced down at a white slip of paper in his hand. It had been delivered by a courier ninja a couple days ago, when he had asked who it came from, all the courier ninja could tell him was he had found a sack on the roadside with an address on it and as a courier ninja he was honor bound to deliver any mail he needed to. All that was written on it was: _"Great Offer Tonight Over This Harem Enterprise. Paradise Looms At Cherie Ebercodge's On Forest Footing In Noose's All Laundry Discount Emporium. Make Off Now Straight Before Atlas Today, Tomorrow Excellently. To become something more than simply the only one. Signed, an Observer."_

The note had greatly puzzled him, but after looking over it for a while he came to the thought that it might be some sort of code. With this in mind he went over to a neighbor of his that enjoyed solving puzzles and codes. Within a minute the man said that the last sentence was exactly that, a sentence, while the rest of the note was written in a code with the first letter of each word being the actual note. Apparently, the actual note was; _'Go to the place of final demon battle. To become something more than simply the only one. Signed, an Observer.'_ He thanked his neighbor who said that next time to have something a bit more challenging.

After this it hadn't taken Naruto long to figure out that the note was specific for immortals seeing as how other humans had forgotten that there had even been a battle against demons. Taking this into account he also realized that since the courier ninja said 'sack' that there would be other immortals at the location, but the only other ones who would know about this battle would be the thirteen other ones there at the same time as him….Including Akane.

The thought of her made Naruto feel a pang of loss, despite getting involved with other women. Unfortunately most of them walked out on him when he told them he was immortal while the others that stayed were sluts that were trying to make use of his 'knowledge', meaning they wanted to see the different ways he learned to fuck a women over the many years. Akane had so far been the only woman whom he had actually felt like it would work (aside from those that had walked out on him).

But, on the plus side he would get to see Kohaku after 100 years. He really missed his aniki, plus a friend he had made in the final battle: Sarutobi Ganju, a man who would become a distant ancestor of Sarutobi Sasuke, the Sandaime Hokage of Konoha.

So here we find him, walking down the decrepit road to the location of where, after 15 years of fighting, the final battle of the Great Demon War took place with a duffle bag swung over his shoulder and taichi sword at his side. Unfortunately, at one of his rest stops in a little restaurant for lunch, a group of his fangirls that had developed recently saw him and gave chase. Why you may ask?

Because recently Naruto had decided to take on a role in an action movie that had scored many hits all over the continent despite the fact that the movie was soundless. So he had run, but alas in the crowd were a couple of females that could use some jutsu and he had been trapped. He was grateful that he had mastered the Kawimari no Jutsu so well, he had used that to escape the horde before they had gotten to his little buddy.

So here he is now, on this forest road that will lead him to the site of the final demon battle, where he and Ganju had slain the Inu demons general. It had been the same one that had been part of the group that had raped and killed Naruto's mother as well as part of the group that had killed Ganju's family.

He had just looked at the note for the 50th time when he felt the buzz of another immortal, one that felt strangely familiar. He smiled as he came into a clearing where he could see the tips of some mountains in the distance and saw an old friend standing there with the man just turning to face him, a smile on the man's face as he gave a joyous shout, "Naruto!"

Naruto came up to the larger man and clasped forearms with him, "Ganju, ruug'la burc'ya **(1)**!"

Ganju stood at an impressive 6'6'', easily towering over most people. He had large muscles and extremely dark skin, a testament to the amount of time he spent in the sun. He was garbed in a violet tank top that had light blue flames crisscrossing over it; on his legs were slightly baggy shinobi pants of a forest green color which bore the Kanji of his name running up the sides in bright red. His hair was a dark brown and was in a flat-top style. He had no facial hair, which made the dark-skinned man a little sad for some strange reason.

Ganju gave off a large grin as he spoke to his old friend, "Been quite a long time since we fought here hasn't it?" The larger man looked around solemnly as he released the forearm clasp, "Standing here makes it feel almost like yesterday."

Naruto nodded as he looked around as well, "Yes it has, yet here we are and the battle took place over 250 years ago. Seeing this place really does bring back the memories."

The two fell into a comfortable silence as they looked over the large clearing that, even after over 250 years, still bore some signs of battle. They noticed the spot where the tent where they had received their orders to fight the Inu general had once been pitched.

However, the moment of reminiscence was cut sort as both felt the buzz of another approaching immortal. The two tensed and slightly drew out their respective swords, Naruto his taichi sword and Ganju an extremely long nodachi that was very simple in appearance.

Together they looked around the clearing and into the forest beside them. They stopped when the branches of a certain tree started to shake a bit. They weren't expecting a figure wearing a large cloak to fall out of them with a cry of shock and sweat dropped together. As one they raised their swords into a defensive stance as they waited for the figure to stand up from where he was prostrate on the field.

"Damnit that is the last time I travel by tree-jumping. I have absolutely no coordination up there." The two heard the cloaked figure say to himself as he stood up from the ground. He looked around a bit then, not noticing the other people standing in the clearing, he pulled a map out of his pocket and studied it. "Okay, the old lady said to go over the very wide river, head south for about two hours, and then turn right at the ominous section of trees in the big forest that would most likely contain giant spiders. Hack my way through that then just run straight forward and I'll come to this large clearing where you can see the tips of mountains in the distance." He looked up from his map to study where he was, still ignoring the Naruto and Ganju as he searched for the mountains the old lady had mentioned, after a quick look he saw them and smiled, "Good, that old bat gave me the correct directions, the ridiculous amount I had to pay was worth it."

Naruto, who had quickly grown frustrated at being ignored by the man shouted out, "Oi Teme! You just going to ignore us all day or are we going to have to get you to notice us!?"

The man turned to them and seemed surprised that there were other people in the clearing, if his posture was anything to go by. Then he seemed to smile again as he said, "Well, well, well. If it isn't the little ebi."

Here Naruto paused as only one person called him that, "Kohaku-nisan?"

The man pulled off the hood of his cloak revealing his smiling face and ruddy amber hair. "Been 100 years hasn't it Naruto?" He noticed the two had their swords drawn, "Hope you're not planning on taking my head with those. I just got married."

The younger brother's eyes widened as he rushed over to his brother and engulfed him in a hug, having sheathed his sword, "Congratulations Aniki! Who's the lucky woman?"

The elder brother released his sibling and stepped back a bit, "Her name is Uzumaki Naomi and I'll tell you more about her later." He then looked over at Ganju, who had been standing off to the side, "Now who's this guy?"

Ganju held out a hand to Kohaku and said, "Name's Sarutobi Ganju Kohaku-san and congratulations on the marriage." Kohaku shook the offered hand and said his thanks. Seeing the questioning look still in the elder Uzumaki's eyes he continued, "I fought with your brother in the final battle, when we took down the Inu general together. We met up every twenty years or so after that."

Kohaku nodded as he smiled politely and said, "Well it's a pleasure to meet you Ganju-san." Letting go of the hand he turned to his younger brother and raised a curious eyebrow, "So otouto, you find that special women yet?"

Naruto sighed as he shook his head, "Not yet ni-san. I've tried, but it hasn't worked out yet." He sighed again and looked around the clearing, "So, what do you think we're here for."

Kohaku shrugged, "Not a clue. This could be some large prank." His face changed to one that would appear on a superstitious sailors face as he mock glanced over his shoulder, "Or it could be some deity that wants revenge or something like that."

Ganju barked out a laugh, "Yeah and we're going to be punished by being turned into plants."

The three of them laughed at this. Once they were done Naruto took off his duffel bag, "Well might as well get comfortable and wait for this deity and the others who may come."

The other two agreed and together they made a small camp in the small clearing. When they had finished they went off to do different camp chores; gathering firewood, hunting/fishing, and scouting the area.

---That evening---

The group that had started out as three had slowly grown into twelve as the other immortals arrived at different times. Each was greeted warmly and stories of what each had done were told. Now the group was waiting on two more to complete the group that had fought at the final battle of the demon wars.

They had started roaring fire and were roasting some meat over it for dinner, plus in a pot where some vegetables that one of them had brought. Tents were pitched in a loose semi-circle with some immortals sharing with others. The group had gathered around the fire, some sitting and others laying on there backs as they looked up into the darkening sky where stars were starting to shine forth.

Suddenly a voice spoke up, "So when is Methos going to get here?" The voice belonged to one of the women of the group; she had very tan skin and deep brown hair with golden eyes. Her brown hair was pulled up into two pigtails that bounced whenever she moved her head. She was wearing a black, backless tank top that stretched over her large DD-cup breasts with a white, sleeveless haori that was decorated in purple and red roses. Covering her slender, but powerful legs was a mini-skirt with fishnet leggings going down the rest her legs. On the mini-skirt was the image of a bloody rose, with the dripping blood forming the kanji for 'deadly beauty'. Her sword of choice was a kodachi that she kept strapped to her right leg, "I mean how long are we going to have to wait." she finished pouting.

A man snorted at that. "Knowing Methos he'll either make a grand entrance or show up fashionably late like he always has." The man who spoke was Duncan MacLeod, the second oldest immortal alive. He carried a katana with a hilt shaped in the likeness of a dragon that had been at his side ever since he learned from the Japanese samurai, back in the world's far off past before the polar ice caps melted and the elemental nations plus the continent they were attached to were all that that was left above the raised waters.

A voice behind Duncan spoke up and startled everyone, "But of course MacLeod. How else would one arrive?" A man stepped out from the shadows, Methos, the oldest immortal alive. The only person not surprised that he had snuck up on them despite being an immortal was Duncan. Ever since the two had come close to the Source, they had discovered that for small periods of time they could go undetected by other immortals since they had lost their immortality for a while during the journey. However after they had employed their 'cloaking' they could be sensed by other immortals from over 2 miles away, kind of a double-edged sword for the two, so they didn't use the ability very often. "Plus I get the opportunity to tick people off. Which is of course an added bonus." He wore an all leather outfit and carried a broadsword on his back.

Duncan once again snorted, "Well it just wouldn't be you if you didn't do that." He patted the ground next to him, "Come, grab some grass or a stump. Take a load off."

Methos smirked, "Well if you're going to be so kind I might as well." He took a seat and looked around at the group before asking, "So what are you lot all doing out here? A little reunion that I wasn't invited to seeing as everyone here is part of the fourteen of us who were at the final battle of the demon wars?"

Everyone shared glances with each other before another person spoke up, "You mean you didn't get a note that was contained in a riddle Methos?" The woman who spoke was dressed in a simple kimono that was showed off her curves very well and strained against her extremely large breasts (larger than Tsunade's). She had moon-white hair that she braided, the braided ponytail wound around one of her shoulders and came to rest in her cleavage. At her side rested a simple katana. Her name was simply Katsuya, for the wonderful medical creams she made.

Methos shrugged, "I've been on the road these last few days so the courier's would have a hard time finding me. So what's this about a note?" Duncan, who was sitting next to him handed Methos his note. The eldest immortal studied it for a minute and quickly discerned the message written in it. "Hmph. This is so simple it's a disgrace. But what concerns me is that we were the only immortals present at that battle, so this is either some sort of prank or another immortal who was alive at that time wants to talk to us about something." Everybody else nodded, having come to one of those conclusions.

Naruto stood up and stretched, "Well, regardless of whatever it may be, sitting here and brooding over this isn't going to solve anything. I'm taking a walk." Murmurs of acknowledgement were sent to his retreating back as he walked off.

He walked around the clearing, remembering his long life on this planet. As he walked he couldn't help but recall all the fighting that had occurred against the demons in the war including the final battle which had occurred here. He came to a stop as his wandering feet led him to a hill, one that he knew well. It was the very same hill where he and Ganju had taken down the demon dog general, when the general's blood ran down the hill it had made the sides bare while upon the top white lilies had sprung up. So lost was he in his memories that he ignored the buzz of an immortal approaching behind him.

"Bit nostalgic isn't it Naruto?"

Hearing a voice that hadn't reached his ears except in memories for many years he found the last member of their group standing before him, "Akane?"

Indeed, there stood before him Hinoiri Akane. She still looked the same as he had seen her all those 350 years ago, back when the final demon battle had been fought. Of course her outfit had changed a bit, she now wore a crimson version of a standard shinobi outfit although her vest only went down to the top of her stomach, accenting how much her bust extended forward and the nodachi she had received from Naruto still rested on her back. She giggled at his dumbfounded expression, "What, you didn't expect little ol' me to show up did you?"

Naruto sputtered a bit in surprise at being snuck up on, "It's not that, it's just….Hey is that my mother's nodachi?" He asked to change the subject.

Akane nodded as she drew it out from the sheath on her back, "Yup! It hasn't let me down once all these years." She smiled and ran a finger down the blade, "Maybe your mother is watching over me or something because whenever I use it I feel like someone I can't see is fighting alongside me. It's strange, but not unwelcome. So I kept it and I still use it to fight alongside me." She finished as she looked up and smiled at him.

He smiled back as he spoke, "I'm glad that you still use it." He shuffled his feet and gestured in the direction of the camp. "Shall we go back to the camp where dinner is undoubtedly being served?"

She nodded as she sheathed her sword, "Lead on good sir." Together they walked back to the camp, where Akane was greeted and everyone settled around the fire as dinner was dished out.

"So what happens now?"

An ethereal voice came from behind them, "I believe that is for me to answer." A bright, blinding light came from behind them. As one they all sprang to their feet as swords were drawn from the sheaths that housed them. They had to cover their eyes so that they didn't get damaged from the bright, white light. When the light died down everyone -minus Duncan, Methos, and Kohaku- all blew back from gigantic nosebleeds for there was a nude woman there whose body was so perfect that even the women blew back from nosebleeds. The woman standing in the clearing nude appeared to either not care or notice that she was naked, revealing her body to the world and only laughed at the reaction she got from most of the immortals present. The reason the other three didn't fly back was because they, aside from Methos (he's just been around long enough to not be bothered by this stuff) had a wife either before or presently.

"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting this when I dropped in on you immortals. Though it certainly was amusing to say the least." She looked over at the three who were still standing and smiled kindly at them. "I appreciate you all not reacting to my nudity, although it wasn't expected." She playfully cupped her large boobs and jiggled them, causing Kohaku at least to gain an uncomfortable look, "After all, even Shinigami-kun said that he couldn't resist having a nosebleed at the sight of my girls." She sighed as she dropped them, "Oh well."

Kohaku coughed in order to gain some of his composure back, "Uh, not to seem rude or anything, but would you mind telling us who you are ma'am."

The female beauty smiled kindly and responded "Of course not Kohaku-kun" with a bow (this caused her large bust to swing a bit and allowed the men to see the roundness of her ass) she introduced herself "I am Kami." She came up from her bow which again caused her breasts to jiggle "And I am here with an offer for you immortals."

"Really?" This came from Naruto. The others had woken up from their unconsciousness when Kami had introduced herself. Everyone stood, intrigued by this offer.

The great deity nodded "Hai Naruto-kun. Each of you earned my noticed due to your heroic actions in the Great Demon Wars. Now, 50 years after the Six Sages have discovered their ability to manipulate chakra shinobi have discovered a means to summon the low-level demons. These ones no longer hold any desire to take over the human world since the shinobi who summon them do enough fighting against each other as it is. Now I have need for guardians of these lands, in order to ensure that this small continent isn't destroyed by these foolish mortals' whims. I also have need of 4 bosses for different animals that are without leadership. The guardians will become bijou or tailed beasts and for each tail will be granted control of an element, be it one of the normal five, a minor element, and even an abnormal element. But first I will decide who will become the bosses of the animal summons."

With a snap of her fingers Methos, Katsuya, an immortal who went by Takaname (a/n:if you want a description of him, think of the monkey king from The Forbidden Kingdom but with black hair. His weapon is a naginata.), and Kohaku were lined up before the great woman. Kami then stepped up to Methos, who was standing there with an inquisitive look on his face, "Methos, cunning and swift, you have been chosen to lead the wolves."

Methos smirked "Well, this might be fun. Certainly haven't done it before so it should be interesting." Kami kissed him on the forehead and a snarling wolf's head appeared on his clothing, a sign of his position.

Kami smiled back and nodded her head before moving on to Katsuya, "Katsuya, so gentle and kind, I would like you to lead the slugs to great renown. A wise prophet foretold that the slugs would eventually be needed to fight alongside the toads. Do you wish to lead them?"

Katsuya nodded, "Even though I do not like to fight I will lead to the slugs and work along with the toads when the time comes." The female deity smiled and placed a small kiss on the woman's cheek as the image of a slug crawled along her back and settled into place.

She then moved down to Takaname "Takaname, are you ready to soar thru the air? To become a king of the sky? Are you ready to lead the Eagles?"

Takaname bowed deeply and answered, "Hai, uruwashii Kami. I am ready to lead the magnificent birds of the air." He rose and Kami placed a kiss on his cheek, a tattoo of an eagle appeared on his arm with it's wings spread in flight. As she turned to Kohaku he slowly reached out to touch the tantalizing piece of ass before he felt his hand stop, as if it had hit an invisible wall, and he looked up at Kami's face.

She wasn't outraged or anything but there was an evil mischief in her eyes as she said, "Be careful child, I am still many millennia ahead of you. Plus it is dangerous to touch my bare skin okay?" She smiled a deceiving smile as Takaname sweated fearfully.

Without pause she moved on to Kohaku, "Kohaku, to become majestic and powerful will come with leading the dragons. To be the fiercest of any animal on land or in the air is what may await you if your answer is yes. Will you lead the dragons?"

Kohaku didn't answer immediately but crossed his arms and bowed his head in thought. After a small amount of time he looked up and asked, "Will you be able to turn my wife into a dragon as well?"

Kami shook her head sadly, "No, I cannot. This offer is only for those gathered here tonight. Your wife will have to remain here in the mortal realm."

Kohaku stepped back, "Then I'm sorry Kami-sama. I will not leave my wife here, I cannot lead the dragons."

Kami just smiled and nodded, "Very well Kohaku. This is your decision and I greatly respect the choice you've made." She stepped back and looked at the three that had accepted the responsibility. "So that you three know, in the demon realm you can choose between your human form or you animal form to be in and will be allowed to change whenever you wish. However in this realm you will stay in your animal form, so that the rest don't realize you are also humans." The other three nodded. The four that stood before Kami moved back The other ten stepped forward and stood before the great deity.

She looked over all of them and started speaking, "Now you ten, if you so choose, will become bijuu and guard the areas appointed to you. You don't have to stay in one spot, but you must stay in your territory, otherwise your animal instincts gained from the transformation may compel you to fight with each other. Also you can choose to move about in three different forms. The first is your human form which will be as you are now but with a little of your animals characteristics such as pointed ears or slitted pupils. Next is your half-demon form will basically be like your human form but with tails, your fingernails will be replaced by claws, and finally your physical strength will be much greater. Finally comes your tailed beast form, it will be similar to a summons body in that you will be an animal, but the difference is that you will have complete control over your specific element, elements, or something else in this form."

She paused as she looked over the ten of them as they stood before her. They stood calmly and only shifted to make sure they didn't get uncomfortable. "I'm going to start the process that will put you into your half-demon forms. Your animal forms will be revealed during the change so you'll find out what you'll be in a bit. Should any of you choose not to want this you will not change. So don't worry about any pain, but you might feel a little uncomfortable." Her body shone with the same white light she had arrived with before. As she did this each immortal began to glow with their own light.

The immortal who was selected to become the Ichibi glowed with a tan light with little blue flashes mixed in. He sprouted a tanuki tail from the where his spine ended and his human ears were replaced with tanuki ears as well. His skin seemed to gain a grainy property, like there was sand stuck to it. His clothes changed to ones you would find on a Buddhist monk, which was oddly fitting since he was one of the most religious people of the bunch, and the image of a tanuki appeared on his new hat (think Raiden's hat from MK:SM).

The immortal selected for the position of Nibi started to shine with a black light with green specks swirling around her. She gained two cat tails right above her bum and two cat ears showed up as well. Her K9 teeth became longer and turned into fangs as her finger nails grew visibly longer. Her clothes pretty much stayed the same except a two-tailed nekomata showed up next to the rose on her mini-skirt.

The immortal chosen to be the Sanbi started shining with an aquamarine light with little bubbles moving in a helix around him. Instead of gaining tails however, he grew a fin on his back and two more sprouted out from his elbows. His skin turned blue and seemed to turn into scales like one would find on a shark, his ears had shrunk down to two simple holes in the side of his head. The clothes he had been wearing changed to a formfitting bodysuit/armor that was steel-gray in color and had a picture of a three-finned shark put on the front.

The immortal picked to be the Yonbi was glowing with a forest-y green light with what looked like red petals of a flower. Four, long monkey tails came from his back along with fur growing on his wrists and down at his ankles. His clothes changed into a forest-green loose kimono with the picture of a steel-gray monkey on the back of it.

The immortal to become the Gobi started glowing with a gray light. Five dog-like tails sprouted out from the bottom of her spine. Small doggy ears replaced her human ears on top of her head and this immortal's once small, A-cup breasts suddenly grew to full, round D-cups causing her shirt to incredibly tighten on her. The clothes she had been wearing, which consisted of normal civilian clothes( i.e. jeans and t-shirt), didn't change at all except for the new five-tailed dog design.

The immortal chosen to become the Rokubi began glowing with a crackling yellow light that had small sparks could be seen by those present. He grew six waving weasel tails. Two tall weasel ears sprung from her head to replace his human ears. His brown hair suddenly turned blond and stood straight up. His clothing became an orange karate-gi with a blue undershirt with matching orange pants and the image of a six-tailed weasel wrapped around his shoulders.

The immortal that was to become the Shichibi started to glow with an earthy-brown light as little pebbles of earth also rose up and floated in the air. Seven black badger tails emerged from the bottom of his spinal cord and his fingernails grew even longer than the ones the Nibi had gained, plus the short ears of a badger replaced his normal human ones. His clothes shifted into what would normally be seen on a person who works in a mine, minus the coveralls, with the picture of a badger over his heart.

The immortal chosen to become the Hachibi commenced glowing with a yellow-green light. He suddenly started hissing in a little pain as his pants disappeared and his legs came together. Scales formed on his lower 'leg' which elongated and split into eight snake tails. His shirt became a black muscle shirt with an eight-tailed snake design on it.

Finally, the immortal chosen to become the Kyuubi shined with a crimson-red light as small, red flames floated around her form. Nine crimson, fuzzy fox tails with crescent moons near the tips appeared at the base of her spine and fox ears replaced her human ones. Her normal clothes shifted into a cross-wrap around her impressive bust and on her legs were biker shorts with a waist sash hanging down to her mid-calf's, covering her feet were steel-toed combat boots. On the sash was a picture of nine-tailed Kitsune on the sash. **(A/n: for mental picture go to .com/art/Kitsune-Lanza-71517589) **

Naruto however, didn't glow. He simply stood and watched the display that was going on with a carefully guarded expression on his face. Kohaku saw this and smiled while shaking his head.

The lights died down as the half-demon forms of the new Kyuu Bijuu were revealed to those gathered in the clearing and everyone who had changed started looking their new forms over in wonder. Kami opened her eyes and looked at her new charges before seeing that Naruto had not changed.

She raised an eyebrow as she asked, "Why did you choose to not accept the offer Naruto? You would have been the strongest of the Bijuu and you too would have been a dragon like your brother and soared through the skies." Naruto lowered his head as he listened to what Kami said as the others also looked at him in confusion.

After a moment of silence as he collected his thoughts Naruto raised his head and gave off a small smile as he said, "I just wouldn't be happy. Having only a set amount of land to watch over and from what you said, only able to lend a hand in certain instances." He paused and shook his head, the smile still on his face. "Nah… I'm the most happy when I'm able to go where I wish and helping out whoever I can, whenever I can. So I'm sorry Kami-sama," (he bowed deeply) "but I can't accept your offer." He straightened himself, content with his decision.

Kami smiled back at him and giggled, "Such conviction Naruto, I'm glad you answered honestly." She paused and her face became thoughtful, "Still it is probably a good decision on your part." She added with her hand on her chin.

Naruto cocked his own eyebrow in confusion, "And why would it have been a good decision Kami-sama?"

She simply smiled and said, "Well, even I the greatest deity of mankind have to battle the monstrosity known as paperwork. So, since you would be the highest ranking Bijou, I would have called you in, oh…around every 50-60 years to get your help with filling it out."

Naruto smiled nervously, "Oh, it couldn't have been as bad as you make it sound."

Kami smiled mischievously at him and snapped her fingers. In a small flash a gigantic tower of paperwork appeared in the clearing. It was, as Naruto had told the Yondaime, big as the Hokage tower and the immortals had to lean back a bit to see the top of the pile of paper since they were so close to it, "This would have been one of the ten piles I would have given to you. Mainly these are prayers and wishes sent straight to me, but sometimes a prayer or something to another deity sneaks into the pile." She smiled at Naruto who was sweating at having narrowly escaping so much work. "Oh, well. Guess I'll have to get Akane to do it now." The nude deity said with a shrug.

Naruto went ramrod straight as he felt the sudden killer intent sent at him from the recently instated Kyuubi. He slowly turned his head to see crimson chakra rolling off her in waves. He backed up cautiously as she started growling along with advancing menacingly towards him. When he had backed off to a certain point he quickly turned tail and made a tactical retreat as Akane shifted to her gigantic animal form and chased after him, tearing up the landscape in the process.

Thankfully, from Naruto's perspective at least, he wasn't chased for long as Kami snapped her fingers and both were frozen in place. Naruto was crying silent tears of joy; Akane's teeth had almost closed down on him. She snapped her fingers again and both were back in the line, Naruto: still weeping and Akane (Back in half-demon form): trying to burn a hole in Naruto's head with a glare. Everyone chuckled at what just occurred with Ganju (the new Yonbi) and Kohaku laughing their guts out.

Kami mock-glared at the two of them. "Are you two done fooling around yet?" Even though it was a mock-glare the two still nodded shakily. Her face and posture brightened and she smiled, "Good." She released the two from the temporary body bind and began speaking again, "As my final gift to you I will allow each of you a chance to birth a child, but it will be up to The Source if that child should become an immortal as Duncan well knows." Here the Highlander nodded, even though he and Anna had given birth to a child, it wasn't an immortal. After the now able to give birth immortals celebrated a bit Kami proceeded to tell each of the new Guardians where their territories would be.

Hirotaka Taiho, The Ichibi would guard the deserts and would be granted mastery over the sand element.

Shihoin Yoruichi, The Nibi would be tasked to guard the area that would come to be known as Demon country and her elemental masteries were gifts from the Shinigami. She would have a small amount of control over Necromancy and Hell's Fire.

Namibure-do Yama, The Sanbi was told to swim in and guard over all the bodies of water. He was given control over the waters, the animals of the deep would assist in his duties, and he could manipulate steam to his will.

Sarutobi Ganju, The Yonbi was tasked with heading to the dense Jungles and watch over all that passed under its trees. He was given the gift of using the four minor elements of metal, sand, ice, and magma and combine them together.

Jeuru Akarui, The Gobi had to go to a certain mountain range, where a large tree was hidden in a concealed valley. This tree was the first tree that had grown back after the world was swallowed by the melting ice caps. In order guard the tree with all her skill she was given the ability to manipulate the five main elements to however she wished.

San Goryu, The Rokubi was sent to a large plateau that overlooked the stretch of land that would later to humans be called the Kumo no Kuni, for its sporadic thunderstorms. His gift was being able to bring forth electricity in its most basic form, not needing a conductor to call it forth and bend it to his will.

Duncan MacLeod, The Shichibi was told to go to land that had been scorched bare of any of it's vegetation in the demon wars and make his home there. As assistance he was given control over any form of matter that contained mostly earth, i.e.: earth, mud, clay, etc.

Makinawa Koriko, The Hachibi would go to the swamps to make sure that the creatures and denizens of the mire were kept safe. His gifts of aid were a vast control over certain illusions that would benefit him in the swamp, plus the ability to see in a 'thermal-vision' which would allow him, when he wanted, to see an objects body heat.

Hinoiri Akane, The Kyuubi would be sent to a large region that was made up of temperate forest that would, for some reason, later be called Hi no Kuni. She was given the same gifts as the Kitsune demons as well as control over the elements of Light and Dark, for one could not exist without the other.

Kami then turned to the three who had chosen to become the bosses of the summon animals, "It's time for you to go to Makai, the demon realm and begin what you have chosen." They nodded and goodbyes were exchanged between them. Then the great deity snapped her fingers and the three were gone in a flash of light that shot up towards the sky. After watching the sky for a small minute she turned towards the Kyuu Bijou and spoke to them, "Now go and perform the duties assigned to you. Remember the responsibility you accepted, but don't make it your whole life. You will know when you will have to come and fulfill your oath so have some fun in your spare time, and Akane?" said woman looked up at Kami, "I'll see you in fifty-five years. Buh-bye!!" She waved and was gone in a flash of light.

With the great being gone the nine guardians set out for their designated areas. Well…all except Akane. That reminder from Kami reminded her of her anger towards Naruto for saddling her with the paperwork responsibility. Seeing the growing anger of the vixen, Naruto looked toward his older brother, "Hey aniki, do you think you could give me directions to where you and Naomi live by any chance?"

His older brother smirked and threw an arm around his little brother's shoulders, "I'll do you one better ebi." He began forming the hand seals for a self-invented jutsu of his that would in many years, become very wide spread. "Shushin no jutsu!" In a puff of smoke, the two vanished, just as Akane leapt for where Naruto had been standing.

With a snarl she leapt to her feet and screamed out in frustration, "Arrgh, Naruto! I'll get you back for this!"

----------------- (Back to the present) --------------------

Naruto shook his head to clear it of the cobwebs that had developed from the memory and the blush from his face. Coming back to himself he saw a that a small ball of lightning had sprung up, no doubt from Hatake Kakashi's only jutsu he had bothered himself to learn after he had 'gained' the sharigan eye from his 'friend' Uchiha Obito. He saw Minato palm his face and shake his head at his student's use of that jutsu; Minato had told Kakashi that the jutsu was a danger because it would only stop after it had hit a solid target, thus making it a danger to teammates and comrades. But, true to how Kakashi had started to act, he simply ignored what he was told.

Together they watched as the ball of lightning leapt up at the giant Kitsune…and was knocked back by one of the tails. With a sigh, Minato readied one of his special Hiraishin kunai and turned to his friend, "Be ready. After I gather up my baka student we'll begin the sealing."

Naruto nodded to Minato as he watched his friend go save one of his two remaining students. He then turned his gaze out over to where Akane was on her rampage. He then leaped from the wall and sped towards the giant Kitsune, his only words being left on the roaring wind as he ran.

"Let's rock."

-------------End of Chapter 2-------------------------

**A/N: Well, that's done. I hope the flashback helped explain a little bit of stuff for all you out there. Now, like I said, I'm unsure of the pairings for the story at the moment, but even so the pairings wouldn't really be acted on until they're like 13 or 14 years old since that's when most teens usually start dating anyways. **

**So, next chapter will be the sealing and you see the very infamous 'council-meeting-that-will-decide-whether-Naruto-is-liked-or-hated!' Will it be good… or…bad??**

**/\_/\ Even I don't know yet, but you're welcome to tell me how you think it should go.**

**(1) = Old friend.**

**SSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

***picks up a little puppy* Bow to the puppy dog eyes! Puppy-dog-eyes no Jutsu!!**

***forces you to look into the puppies eyes* You will do what I say.**

**REVIEW!!**

**\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

**DOWN THERE!!**

**\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**

**PRESS THE BLUE BUTTON!!**

**\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**Unknown-nin345: Hello boys (and girls)! I'm baaack!!**

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

… (Begin the Chapter)…

Outside of the Kyuubi no Kitsune/ Hinoiri Akane is still destroying the landscape. However, it seems that her attention has been diverted from the city and is focused on one particular individual from the way her tails where only striking at one spot. She also seems to be shouting something, let's go see what it is.

"**You goddamn black-haired bastard!"**

Two of her tails swung down together, creating a small fissure in the earth.

"**I'm going to make you fucking pay for leaving me with all that paperwork!!"**

She brought down one of her large paws to try and swat something on the ground. I think by now we know who she's trying to squish.

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT! HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW KAMI WAS GOING TO MAKE THE HIGHEST-RANKING BIIJOU DO A PORTION OF HER PAPERWORK?!" Naruto (hiding behind a tree and cowering for his life) shouted up at Akane, using chakra to increase the sound of his voice.

You see, Naruto had gone out to the Kyuubi/Akane to try to calm her down since he thought a familiar face may help and make it easier to seal her. Unfortunately, it seemed she was still mad at him for unintentionally dumping the duty of filling out that massive amount of paperwork onto her when he had chosen to not become the Juubi. So, he had ordered the other Shinobi to fall back to Konoha, many thanked him and sped off to take care of their wounds along with the other wounded shinobi while he suffered from the relentless attacks of a crazed vixen.

"**You fucking liar! Of course you knew that would happen. That's why you chose to not become the Juubi! You thought it would be funny that I would be stuck behind that mountain of paperwork!"** She brought down another paw, the force of the smash throwing Naruto from his hiding place.

Naruto quickly jumped to his feet and started forming one-handed seals in each hand. Once he had completed the sequence for both hands, he brought them together and shouted the name for his jutsu, "UINDO/RAIKOU RIRI-SHU! NIBAI DAI DORAGON MISARU!" Behind the immortal formed a large dragon made of wind and a large dragon of lightning. The two great dragons rose up and launched at Akane/Kyuubi, fusing into one large wind dragon with lightning crackling, darting, and flying around it.

Akane saw the dragon coming pulled up a tail and used it to block the attack, when she pulled back her tail, she could see that there was a black spot on her otherwise brilliant, ruby-red fur. Her red eyes glowed with fury and she turned her head back to Naruto, who started to shrink in on himself under that glare.

With impressive speed she launched out a tail and wrapped it around him before bringing him up to her face, and snarled at him, **"You bastard! You singed my brilliant fur!"** She showed him her tail that had the singed mark on it, **"I'm going to make you pay even more then before now!"**

Naruto shivered under her dangerous glare and looked down at her flank, where he had two kage bushins drawing the preservation seal on the large fox's body. One of them looked up at him and signed with hand signals that they were almost done. He mentally nodded as he brought his eyes back up to Akane.

"**What were you looking at Naruto?"** She growled out, she had seen his eyes shift and stayed that way for a quick second before coming back up to her eyes.

The man sweated as he thought up an idea before he smiled disarmingly and suddenly said, "Why, your glorious fur Akane-chan! It looks so soft and shiny…have you been using a new conditioner?"

Akane blushed a bit under her fur; she had always been proud of her fur and had taken care of it as best as she could, **"Well I did start using this new-"**

"We're finished taichou! The seal's in place!" Turning her head she saw the two clones, "Ah shit! Cheese it!" They promptly dispersed themselves to avoid getting hurt.

Slowly, her head turned back to Naruto who was still being held in her tail. He smiled nervously at having been discovered as rivers of sweat poured down his face. "Ah, so, uh, Akane-chan."

Any attempt to speak was cut off as he was thrown thru the air with a shout of, **"YOU BASTARD! You desecrated my lovely fur again!"**

Naruto braced himself as the trees started coming closer. With a painful grunt he went clean through the trunk of multiple trees, before finally ending up speared on a branch that didn't snap from his speed.

He painfully looked down at his chest where the tip of the branch was sticking out of with blood free-falling to the ground below. "Aw (cough) shit. I hate this part." He said with blood trickling out of his mouth.

Before he 'died', he reached down to his pouch, took out an odd three-pronged kunai, and flicked his wrist to the branch below him. As his vision grew black, he could make out a yellow flash of light that signaled the appearance of Minato. Good thing he knew that Naruto was immortal (in a sense).

Minato looked up at Naruto and pulled him off the branch. He watched with fascination as the wound started to slowly close up. Looking up he saw that Akane was approaching. He flashed himself and Naruto to his office where he had set up the Shiki-fuuin, de-aging, and imitation seals.

He gently placed Naruto on his desk and reached for the scroll the showed his notes on the imitation seal. He looked quickly over it to familiarize himself with it then with a brisk nod he turned back to Naruto and bit his thumb, providing the blood & medium to change Naruto into an exact copy of his self.

With a sigh he finished with the spiral that was he had the designed the seal as and pushed a specific amount of chakra into it. He watched with baited breath as Naruto slowly took on his image with slight differences. When it had finished he looked over Naruto to make sure nothing had gone wrong since it had been a newly made seal. At the last moment, he had decided to add in some changes so that Naruto would not look exactly like the Yellow Flash.

Minato discarded Naruto of all his clothes since he would become too small for them; then turned to the scroll that held the design for the de-aging seal and started to apply the design to Naruto's body, this one was placed over his heart. It was designed in the simple shape of the kanji for 'age'. With baited breath, Minato activated this seal as well. Naruto's form shrunk down, becoming smaller and growing younger. When it finally finished there lay a baby Minato look-alike.

It was at this moment that Naruto came back to the world of the living. The newly-turned baby's eyes snapped open as the small body gasped for breath. When his breathing calmed down he looked around and noticed that the world seemed bigger, during his look-around he noticed the seemingly larger Minato standing above him.

Seeing the questioning look in the now-infants eyes he answered with a smile, "The seals worked, you now look like an infantile version of me. All that's left is to seal her into you." He drew the design of the Shiki-fuuin seal onto Naruto's stomach around the spiral, wrapped Naruto up in a blanket, and wrote a little note down on a nearby scroll for his predecessor said what he had done. Also on the note, that either Jiraiya or Tsunade were to care for Naruto as well as what would need to be done with the Kyuubi's body. Minato looked down at his friend who looked back at him, each with sad eyes, and said, "Well my friend I guess this is it. Goodbye." With a flash of yellow he returned to the battlefield to perform the deed that would be placed in the history books.

Still in the room, Naruto decided to take a nap and with a yawn was about to go to sleep when he realized something: he was a baby and babies got breast-fed! Yes! Now with a smile of victory on his face he went to sleep and prepared for the new life he was about to live.

(After the sealing (Still in the office))

Sasuke Sarutobi, re-instated as the Sandaime Hokage, sat behind his desk smoking on his favorite pipe in order to calm his thinking down, the scroll containing the Kyuubi's body resting in one of his robes pockets. He had just finished reading the note left by Minato and was now trying to decide whether to send out a note to either Jiraiya or Tsunade.

Let us see, Pros and Cons for both.

Jiraiya

-Pros-

-Naruto would learn Jiraiya's unique ninjutsus.

-They wouldn't have to worry about being found since Jiraiya moved around a lot.

-Sarutobi would get to see Naruto every once in a while since Jiraiya had to report back to him.

-Cons-

-Naruto would most likely become a super pervert.

-Depending on the boy's attitude, Jiraiya might become annoyed with Naruto.

-Naruto might be in danger of a nuke-nin or bandit attack.

Sarutobi reviewed his mental list and began to compare it to the one he made for Tsunade.

Tsunade

-Pros-

-Tsunade might be persuaded to come back to the village.

-Naruto may become a medic-nin on par with Tsunade.

-Naruto could end up with better luck than Tsunade at gambling and could help pay off her debts.

-Cons-

-Naruto could become a gambler himself or have even worse luck than Tsunade.

-Naruto could acquire the same drinking habit as Tsunade.

-Naruto may come to share Tsunade's hatred of Konoha.

The Professor shook his head and continued to smoke on his pipe, both Tsunade and Jiraiya held good points and bad points. It would be a difficult decision if he chose one of them. He looked over at the crib in his office; he had become accustomed to carrying Naruto with him wherever he went since assassination attempts were made after he had revealed to the council what Minato had done. Even now he still felt disappointed in the civilians on the council; those people just couldn't understand certain aspects of fuuin jutsu (it didn't help that Minato had been considered a master in the art).

"Well Naruto-kun, I guess I'll send out letters to the both of them and see where it goes from there." The Sandaime got out some pen and paper to write his letter when he began hearing some kind of commotion outside his office.

"WELL IF I CAN'T ENTER THEN GO ASK THE SANDAIME IF I CAN FUCKING ENTER!!" An angry woman's voice shouted, already the old Hokage had a good idea who it was. Sarutobi stayed seated behind his desk as one of his Anbu crashed through the wall and skidded to a stop in his office.

The Anbu stood up and saluted before speaking, "Hokage-sama, Kushina-san wishes to enter your office at this time, even though we have told her you're not allowing anyone to enter."

Sarutobi just waved a hand in dismissal, "Its okay Anbu let Kushina-chan in." The Anbu saluted and 'poofed' out of the office. A second later, a smug Namikaze-Uzumaki Kushina entered the room.

"Kushina-chan! Welcome, what brings you here at this late hour?" Sarutobi asked with a small smile.

Her expression turned forlorn as her gaze went to the crib where Naruto was currently snoozing (with a little bubble coming from his nose) and said, "I wanted to see him, the child that Minato used to seal the Kyuubi into."

**(A/N: psst… yeah, hey. Sorry about the interruption, just wanted to let you all know that nobody in the village but Minato knew about Naruto actually not being a baby. Hope that saves you some confusion, back to your regularly scheduled reading.)**

The Sandaime nodded and moved over to the crib along with Kushina. Naruto seemed to sense the two coming to look at him and woke up, popping his snooze bubble in the process. He looked up at the two looking down at him with that confused face only a baby could make, causing Kushina to scream 'Kawaii' in her head from the combination of the look on his face and his newly acquired whisker marks.

The baby Naruto reached upward with his hands, signifying that he wanted to be picked up. Kushina looked over at the aged shinobi, silently asking for permission to pick up the young container. He nodded his head, so she gently reached down and scooped up Naruto in her arms. He looked confused for a second before seeming to accept it and started making little cooing sounds as Kushina gently rocked him.

She suddenly shook her head and said, "I don't see how those fools can think that this is the dreaded Kyuubi no Kitsune. Aside from these whisker marks and the seal on his stomach he doesn't even show any signs of housing the greatest of the Bijuu."

Sarutobi sighed in agreement, "Yes, but this shows the classic flaw of most humans, we fear what we don't understand. Let's at least be thankful that the clans don't hate him. The trouble now, though, is to find someone to care for him and while the clans don't hate him I don't think they would agree to house the container of a tailed beast."

The two were silent for moment with the cooing of Naruto being the only sound in the room before Kushina spoke up, "Minato and I always talked about having children someday. We were going to teach them everything we knew, give them guidance in their choices, be there on their wedding days, and hopefully live long enough to see them give us grandchildren." She smiled as Naruto started playing with her fingers. After just watching him for a quick second, she looked up at the Sandaime with a no-nonsense expression on her face. "Sarutobi-sama, I'd like to adopt Naruto. I'll give up the Namikaze name since you and Jiraiya were the only one who knew we were married anyways." The redhead said and stone would have been hard-pressed to match her firmness.

"Kushina-chan I hope you realize that if you do this you are likely to receive the same hatred from the civilians just for raising Naruto." The Sandaime said worried about the reaction of the villagers.

She nodded her head, "Yes, I do realize that the civilians may start showing me hatred as well, but I can't just abandon an infant and move on with my life. I'm going to take care of him and hopefully be able to do all those things Minato and I would have done with children of our own." Her eyes gained a steely quality as she spoke, showing that she wouldn't be swayed on this course of action.

Sarutobi nodded and walked back to his desk before fishing out of one of his drawers' adoption paperwork for Kushina to fill out. An hour later Kushina Uzumaki had become the mother of Naruto Uzumaki (ha, doesn't even have to change his name). "You can still use the Namikaze estates as your living quarters. I'll send by some baby stuff tomorrow morning Kushina-chan."

"Arigatou gozaimasu Hokage-sama for doing this for me." She bowed to the village's leader in thanks.

"It's no trouble at all Kushina-chan; personally I think that you're a better choice than Jiraiya or Tsunade." Seeing her raised eyebrow he elaborated, "He had left a note that told me he sealed the Kyuubi in the young one here, and that he thought it best that Naruto be raised by either Jiraiya or Tsunade. Unfortunately both held bad qualities that I don't want Naruto to gain."

Kushina smiled and nodded her head, after all many ninja had learned of Jiraiya's perviness and Tsunade's gambling/drinking habit. Suddenly little Naruto started mewling and began waving his tiny arms around.

"Well Sarutobi-san I'm going to take my son home now, I think he's getting hungry now." She said as she made her way to the door.

"Good luck Kushina-chan, I hope you have fun raising your new son." The Hokage of Konoha waved as the new mother left with her son.

-- (7 Years Later) —

There was a calm serene peace surrounding the village, Sarutobi mused as he looked out the window of his office and looked over the village he had sworn to protect.

So calm…so peaceful…

"UZUMAKI NARUTO!!!"

…Or not. Sigh….Those two did this every morning, ever since Naruto had discovered the wonder of pranks he had seen fit to do at least one prank per day on a variety of people at the Namikaze clan house and then Kushina would chase him down. Of course, the only people inside the house beside Naruto and Kushina were the maids and butlers that took care of the house. He chuckled as he remembered a day where Naruto had stolen all of their clothes because they had taken away his favorite orange jacket.

--- (At the Namikaze clan house) ---

Currently our young (in a way old), blonde prankster was munching on a banana as he ran away from his adopted mother. He took a glance behind him and saw the she was still covered in the rainbow tie-dye paint and still shouting what she was going to do to him if she caught him.

He gulped nervously when he caught a possible, "You'll be grounded for a month on kunai tips!"

Naruto blew caution to the wind as he threw back the empty banana peel and rounded a corner. Somehow the peel escaped Kushina's notice and she slid on it straight into one of the maids, sending both down in a pile of limbs and towels.

Naruto chuckled and continued his running away to prolong his torture. He had just made it outside to the mini-forest in the clan estate's back yard when a young female voice called out to him.

"Naruto-kun, over here!"

The blonde-haired boy looked over at the origin of the voice and saw one of his closest friends, Musashi Isaribi. "Hey Isa-chan!" He said back as he made his way over to her.

She had been found by Kushina when Naruto's mother had taken an escort mission to Umi no Kuni a year ago and had followed up on rumors of disappearances in the village. Kushina had discovered that the disappearances were being caused a subordinate of Orochimaru's, a twisted scientist named Amachi. The man had been conducting experiments on making the perfect underwater soldier and was about to start working on the 4-year old girl when Kushina burst in. Thankfully, nothing that would alter her appearance had been done by the scientist.

She then proceeded to lay the hurt on the scientist to gather some information from him. The man quickly fell to her wrath and told her all about what Orochimaru had commissioned him to do, how long it had been since the snake-traitor had last been there, where the young girl was from, and finally how much time it would be until the pedophile's next check up.

After getting the desired answers, including that he had killed Isaribi's family and had kidnapped her for his experiments; she killed the scientist, grabbed Isaribi, and planted exploding tags all over the base which led to its ultimate destruction. Now Isaribi lived in the Namikaze estate, having been adopted by one of the maids that lived there.

Anywho, back to the story.

Naruto made his way over to his friend who was sitting by a small pond with several small fish swimming in it that was in the backyard, her feet soaking in the water.

She smiled at him and said, "So what did you do this time Naruto-kun?"

Naruto pouted and crossed him arms while he looked away, "I can not believe that you think I had something to do with this Isa-chan. I'm hurt that you think that."

Isaribi just giggled at this, "Well your mom only shouts like that when a prank goes off in the estates." She looked over her shoulder at the door and saw the rainbow-painted Kushina coming thru, Isaribi tapped her friend on the shoulder as she said, "Oh, and Naruto-kun? You should start running." When he looked over at her, she simply pointed to where his mother was burning a hole at him with her eyes alone.

Naruto gulped, "Yeah, see ya soon Isa-chan."

He then took off into the small forest just as his mother pounced at the spot he just was at. When she noticed Isaribi sitting there she smiled brightly, "Hello Isaribi-chan. How are you doing today?"

The young, black-haired girl just smiled back, "I'm doing good Kushina-san, and I guess this is what Naruto's most recent prank is huh?"

Kushina sighed before she said, "While I understand that these pranks help with his stealth and other such skills, it doesn't mean he has to do it every single day!" Her face hardened a bit. "If he doesn't stop soon I'm going to start banning him from his ramen." With that she took into the woods leaving behind Isaribi.

Isaribi smiled and shook her head; Naruto would do anything for ramen. She went back to staring into the pond and the small fish that inhabited it swishing her feet back and forth as she listened to the sounds coming from the forest to her right. She sighed as her mind wandered back to the day her best friend's mother had saved her from that horrible scientist. While she had no physical changes, she had learned that she could now understand all aquatic life and she could breathe underwater for at least 30 minutes.

Yelps of pain coming from the forest prompted her to look over at the trees, she saw that the mother had caught her son and was dragging him by his ear back towards the house while she delivered the ultimatum: no more pranks or no more ramen.

Needless to say, this quieted Naruto for the remainder of the drag into the house as he contemplated this. Keep doing pranks and lose ramen or lose the pranks and keep the ramen. Tough decision. He was still silent as he was dragged into the house and Isaribi went back to watching the fish swim around in the pond (a couple of them were group singing "It's a small world").

About 10 minutes later Naruto came back out to the pond, looking satisfied. When he sat down Isaribi asked what happened.

"We agreed that I could do one prank a month at the cost of only one bowl of ramen a month." He snickered, "She said nothing about cup ramen though."

Isaribi shook her head, tossing about her brown hair that reached down to just below her neck, amusedly, "Only you Naruto-kun, only you." There was a comfortable silence between the two for a while as they sat and enjoyed the peaceful day. After a while Isaribi turned her head and asked, "So when is Lee supposed to get here?"

Naruto put a finger up to his chin as he thought on it, "He should be here anytime now and when he does get here I can show you that thing I found last night." He finished with a broad grin.

"NARUTO-KUN!! ISARIBI-CHAN!!"

The two looked over in the direction the loud voice came from while the owner of the voice came round the building. It was a boy with shiny, black hair that came down in a short ponytail and two pointed bangs on the sides of his face. He was wearing a sleeveless karate gi and black pants with tabis covering his feet.

"Hey Lee!" Shouted Naruto as the two of them waved to their friend. They had met Rock Lee in the park the day after Isaribi had been brought into Konoha and upon learning that he was an orphan; Naruto had instantly befriended him while Isaribi had been shy at first before she warmed up to the orphaned boy. Ever since then the three had been extremely good friends.

Lee came to stop by the pond and plopped down on the grass next to them. He laid there and caught his breath for a minute before he started speaking, "Sorry I couldn't be here sooner, Migami-san's chores took a long time to complete. Anyway, what was it that you wanted to show us Naruto-kun?"

Naruto smiled as he stood up. He started walking to the forest behind the house, when he reached the edge he turned and beckoned with a hand, "Come on. It's in here." The blonde-haired boy waited for his friends to catch up before the three went into the forest.

They had walked for a long while before Naruto stopped near a large bush that seemed a little out of place. He carefully lifted it up, showing that the bush had no roots, and set it down. In the bushes place now lay a large hole.

Lee and Isaribi eyed it a little skeptically. They both looked up with a face that clearly said: 'This is what you wanted to show us?'

Naruto nodded his head at their expressions, "Last night I was wandering around in here and my foot suddenly fell in the ground. Once I was able to stand back up I saw this hole here. I was curious about how deep it was so I took a bell that I had in my pocket and dropped it down the hole. For a little bit I could here nothing until it hit ground, then it kept ringing which might mean that it hit an underground hill or something. Then it was quiet before I could just barely hear a dull ping. I don't think this is just a hole, it might lead somewhere." He paused and pulled out a rope that he had hidden in another bush and turned back to his friends. "You two want to find out where it goes?" He asked smiling.

Both of his friends looked at each other and shrugged. "Why not?" The two said at the same time.

"Awesome." Naruto looked around and together he and Lee tied the rope to the nearest tree. Naruto uncoiled the rope as he walked to the hole in the ground. He looked at the rope, the hole, and then his friends. "I'll go down first. I'm not sure how far down this hole goes so I'll give two tugs if the rope runs out and a tug if I make it to the bottom. Okay?"

Lee and Isaribi nodded with Naruto nodding back. He threw the rope down the hole, and then began his descent into the darkness. He had gone down about a quarter of the rope when he felt the sloping ground of where his bell had first hit. He carefully and slowly slid down it until he unexpectedly came to the edge. His foot slipped and he fell, getting a rope burn on his hands before his feet his solid ground and he collapsed to his knees from the unexpected stop. "Well," He muttered to himself, "I think I found the bottom."

Looking around revealed nothing about where he was. Darkness surrounded him with the spot he was kneeling at being the only sliver of dim light. He moved to push himself up and felt his hand touch something metal. He looked down and saw the bell he had thrown down last night. He pocketed it with a small chuckle and stood up. Naruto reached for the rope and gave it a sharp tug.

A couple minutes later all three stood in the underground room. They all looked around, trying to see into the deep darkness that surrounded them.

"Hmmm." This came from Lee. He was standing there with his hands on his hips with a thoughtful look. He suddenly lifted his hands and…clapped twice. Light burst into place all around them, leaving them blinded by the sudden change. When they could finally lower their arms and open their eyes, they were shocked, awed, and astounded at what they saw in the very large room.

In one spot were these odd shoes that had thick, golden rings on them. In another part of the room there were what appeared to be six standard weapons (a sai, two katanas, a bo-staff, and two nunchuks), except for the clear see-through parts of said weapons. On pedestals were what looked like strange watches, although they didn't seem to have any normal features of a typical watch. Still on another pedestal was an odd sphere that looked like a black armadillo. Hanging on racks in the room were multiple suits of very strange body armor; it looked nothing like anything a ninja would wear, instead it was big, green, and looked like it was something that couldn't be pierced by anything; even in its orange faceplate.

"What is all this stuff?" Isaribi asked awestruck.

"_This is the Armament Cache #22,_" A metallic, yet light-hearted voice said. The looked around startled, but didn't see anything. "_I am surprised to finally see humans here. I was beginning to think that if no one could discover this location over the course of five thousand years, then no one would__._"

"Who's there? It is rude to not show yourself to those you are speaking to," said Lee.

"_Ah! I apologize then. Wait one moment, please__._" Suddenly the three heard a cheery humming sound and what sounded like a light whirring. They turned as one when a panel opened in the wall and out floated a round, metal ball. It had a glowing blue light in the center that pulsed every time it spoke, "_Greetings. I am the Monitor of this cache, 686-Livelyjolt__._"

Isaribi and Lee were just about ready to bolt right then and there. The only thing that kept Naruto from doing the same was his memory of a talk he had with Methos once. _'So this is a Monitor. A robot built to safeguard specific locations. I thought Methos said they had been trashed after the monitors became too possessive about what they were guarding.'_

"What is your purpose here?" The blond boy asked the floating sphere.

The bot seemed to focus on him when it answered, "_Why, to safeguard the armor and weapons in this cache, of course; also to make sure that the first humans to find the cache be granted access to all the armor and weapons in the cache. Since you are the first humans to discover the cache, my programming instructs me to permit you three to take what you wish__._"

"Really?" Naruto asked it. The front part of Livelyjolt, where the blue orb was, bobbed up and down which pretty much was his equivalent of a nod. Naruto then looked around at all the objects in the room and asked, "Can you tell us what all of this stuff is?"

"_Certainly._" Livelyjolt replied. He floated over to the pedestal where the black armadillo-thing was located. "_This is the container for a special device called the omnitrix. It was discovered after a meteor had landed on Earth and soon enough, the humans found that it would allow the wearer cover his body with various types of elemental armor; ranging from fire to ice, and water to lightning. It was also discovered that the wearer could launch projectiles of whatever element they were wearing at the time._" The floating robot turned to face the three humans as he continued, "_However, the change would only last for about ten to fifteen minutes and then the omnitrix would have to charge for a short amount of time before another change could take place._"

Naruto looked over at Lee and gestured at the pedestal. "You know, that omni-whatever could really help you out Lee." They had found out that Lee couldn't mold chakra for some strange reason when Naruto's mother had taught them an exercise that would allow them to access their chakra stores.

Lee nodded and walked up to the pedestal. He looked up at the Monitor, who simply bobbed up and down, before he reached out for the round orb. Before his hand could actually touch it though a small section of the orb opened up, revealing a very odd watch that leaped up and wrapped its straps around the black-haired boy's right wrist.

Lee started back in surprise and tried to pull it off. When he couldn't remove it, the black-haired boy looked up at Livelyjolt and asked, "Why won't it come off?

The floating robot seemed to be thinking for a moment before it looked at Lee and said, "_According to my databanks, a certain code was needed in order to release the omnitrix. I was never given this code, since it varies for each person who wears the omnitrix._"

Lee looked down at the watch on his wrist and sighed. "Well, at least it's got cool colors." **(a/n: If you want an accurate picture of what it looks like, it's the omnitrix from Ben 10: Alien Force. That one looks much cooler.)**

Isaribi, who had been standing over by the shoes, asked, "What are these?"

Livelyjolt floated over and said, "_These were never given an official name although, amongst those who used them, they were given the nickname: Speed Shoes. The rings at the ankles of the shoes had been supercharged with energy, making it so that whoever wore a pair of these shoes could run faster than the speed of sound. Plus, one pair hanging here allows the wear to levitate about two or three inches off the ground and allow them to skate, if you will, along at a pace almost equal to the Speed Shoes. _"

The brown-haired girl looked up and asked, "Was that really possible?"

"_Oh, most assuredly._" Livelyjolt assured, "_Technology was extremely advanced five thousand years ago before I was placed down here to watch over all of these items._"

Naruto asked from where he was standing by the clear weapons, "Why are parts of these weapons clear like glass? Is it actually glass or something else?"

Livelyjolt floated to the blonde boy. "_These weapons were specially crafted for and used by four warriors who fought similarly to you shinobi. The clear parts you see on all the weapons can channel a special energy that, when focused like in these weapons, can cut through almost anything. The bladed weapons anyway, the staff and nunchuks though could break through almost anything._" The Monitor explained.

"Cool." Naruto whispered. He reached up and ran his hand along one of the katana blades.

Lee, meanwhile, was trying to figure out just how to work the omnitrix. Suddenly the circle part of the watch rose up, the green and black hourglass in the center changed with the green expanding out while a black flame appeared in the middle. He looked at it confused before he slowly pushed down on the raised circle.

In a bright green flash, Lee changed. A flaming red mask appeared over his face and his black eyes became yellow with the white part turning orange **(a/n: if you want an accurate picture, think Toa Tahu Nuva's mask from the Bionicle movie)**. A bright-red breastplate showed up on his chest with two identical shoulder pauldrons forming on his shoulder, all of these pieces of armor were covered in flames. Dark-crimson samurai thigh armor appeared on his legs with flames licking the edge of it. Finally, a pair of red gloves appeared on his arms that had three short flaming spikes that extended out from his knuckles.

He looked down at himself while Naruto and Isaribi stared in surprise. He raised an arm toward one of the walls that had nothing on it and from the palm of his hand; a small fireball launched forward and left a small scorch mark on the wall.

Lee smiled and the mask seemed to move with the smile. "Awesome." He muttered softly.

Livelyjolt floated over to Lee and began admonishing the black-haired boy. "_Please do not do that again! Even though I am relieved that you didn't aim at any of the items stored here, it would not be good if you mistakenly did aim one of them. This is a great ability that you have been granted, do not make me regret allowing you the chance to have gained it._"

Lee bowed his head in apology, "I'm sorry Livelyjolt-san. I didn't know you felt so strongly about what you were guarding down here."

The Monitor sighed before it said, "_Just please don't do that again down here._"

"Livelyjolt-san, you said that a pair of these boots allowed someone to levitate, which ones were they?" Isaribi asked.

Livelyjolt floated over and seemed to think for a second before he hovered in front of a specific pair. "_I believe that this was the pair that let the wearer levitate._"

Isaribi nodded in thanks as she reached up and pulled them down. She then took off the sandals she had been wearing and pulled on the shoes that were bigger than her feet. The brown-haired girl watched in amazement as the shoes shrunk down to fit her feet perfectly.

She looked up at the Monitor and asked, "How do I get them to levitate me?"

The floating robot seemed to be staring off into space as it accessed its databanks. Once it had apparently found the appropriate information it said, "_According to my databanks, the wearer of the levitation shoes all one has to do is simply focus on floating. It should become second nature to the wearer once he or she has had time to become used to them._"

Isaribi looked down at the shoes and her brow furrowed in concentration. After about five minutes of silent focusing, she let out a gasp when she was lifted off the floor. She looked up at her friends with a large smile. "Look! It really works!" She said to the two excitedly.

"That's great Isa-chan." Naruto said with Lee nodding his agreement.

Lee walked over to where the large suits of green armor were hung, his own flame armor still activated, and asked, "What are these? They look like suits of armor, but I don't think that anybody normal could fit into these."

The Monitor floated as he said, "_Ah, a sad tale surrounds the origin of these suits. Five-thousand seven-hundred years ago a rebel faction that called themselves Mandolorians, threatened to tear apart the fragile peace that had developed over the years. Unfortunately, they were too deeply entrenched in their location and too well defended for the regular army to simply wipe out. So, this armor was developed in hopes of keeping the wearers alive long enough in order to kill the leaders of the rebel forces._"

"So what happened next?" Naruto asked from where he still stood by the weapons.

"_The armor was tested out on volunteers. Each time though, it failed. The cybernetics of the suits made it so that they responded to the wearers' thoughts almost immediately, whether it was the movement of an arm or of the leg. It responded so fast that it would always break the wearer's bones. So the scientists decided that in order to properly use the suits, the people would need augmentations to their bodies so that they wouldn't be killed when they used the armor. However, any adults used died from the augmentations so the scientists decided to go for something younger. Namely children._" Livelyjolt explained.

"You can't be serious!" Isaribi exclaimed.

The Monitor rotated to face her and said, "_I am serious. Soon, enough of the children could survive the augmentations and they were trained to be soldiers. Once they were ready, they were outfitted with the suits and sent to storm the fortress. Some lived, while many of them died. The suits here were of those who led the charge to the fortress and managed to kill the Mandolorian leaders. The most famous of these soldiers was Spartan-117, John._" The Monitor turned to face the suit of armor in the middle of the group, the one with the most battle scars on it, and continued, "_I had the honor of meeting him before he died, and before I was stationed down here._" There was silence for a couple minutes as the three children were absorbed in their own thoughts about what they had learned down here.

Naruto already knew about them though, as did the other thirteen immortals that had taken part in the Great Demon War millennia ago, since Methos and Duncan had told the others about them and had instructed them in the language that they would use as a code to be sure that the demons weren't impersonating somebody.

Isaribi meanwhile had managed to slowly skate over to where the odd watches were. She took one down and asked Livelyjolt, "What are these supposed to be? They sort of look like watches."

Livelyjolt chuckled as he floated over before he said, "_These 'watches', as you put, aren't watches at all. They are devices that were made in an attempt to imitate the ability of the omnitrix. However, the scientists were unable to store the elements into these devices so instead; they spliced animal DNA into them. Each watch contains a unique set of armor that bestows upon the wearer near perfect knowledge of a specific martial arts style as well as certain characteristics of the animal whose DNA was spliced into the watch; be it increased sight, strength, hearing, or even speed. In this way, they received the nickname: Power Morphers. However, it does have limitations. If someone who was using the Morpher's armor got hit with a large amount of electricity or a bolt of lightning, then the armor will instantly disperse and the wearer would be severely weak for anywhere from a couple minutes to half-an-hour._"

Isaribi looked at the watch for a second before she wrapped it around her wrist and noticed for the first time that it had eight buttons along the edge of it. She looked up at Livelyjolt and gestured with the watch. "How do I activate it?"

The floating robot's blue eye flashed a couple of time before he said, "_According to my databases, you need to press the three buttons on the edge of the watch in a specific order to summon the armor. From the records of the other users, this order was: top-right, bottom-right, and finally top-left._"

Isaribi pushed the specified buttons on the watch, as soon as she did a full-body turquoise jumpsuit, with some splashes of white, spread over her body. On her head, a helmet appeared that had what looked like a fin on top and one on each side of her head with a black visor covering her eyes and a row of shark-like teeth that looked painted on. To the surprise of the boys, she also grew to the height of 5'5'' with womanly curves that shouldn't be on a seven year-old girl also growing.

She looked down at herself before looking back at the Monitor and shouted/asked, "What the hell happened?" Despite not having any facial features, Livelyjolt was able to project an aura of embarrassment.

"_I'm sorry Isaribi-san,_" Livelyjolt said, using the children's native honorific, "_When I looked through my databases for information on the Morphers, I only did it on the adults who had used them. Please wait one moment._" The Monitor was silent as he quickly ran through a databanks. _"Aha! Apparently, a young boy was somehow able to acquire possession of one of the Morphers. Whenever he would use it, he would grow in height since the watches had been designed with young adults' bodies in mind. You should go back to being your normal self once you disperse your armor. To do that, you simply push button on the top of the watch._"

Isaribi quickly did so and in a soft flash of light, she was back to her seven year-old self just as Lee's armor also faded away. Both sighed and Isaribi looked up at the Morphers before looking over at Naruto. "Do you think you should get one Naruto-kun?" She asked the blond boy.

He put a hand to his chin in thought before he looked over at the Monitor and asked, "Livelyjolt, do you know if any of the Morphers are spliced with fox DNA?"

The robot bobbed up and down before it floated over to the leftmost Morpher on the bottom row. "_I believe it is this one Naruto-san._" Livelyjolt said.

Naruto walked over to the specified Morpher and pulled it off the shelf before strapping it to his wrist. He then pushed the required buttons on the watch to summon the armor. An orange full bodysuit, with splashes of black on it, appeared over his body with an orange helmet appearing on his head that looked like it had two laid-back fox ears with a row of fox-like teeth that looked painted on and a black visor over his eyes. He grew also to a height of 5'7''.

Naruto looked himself over before he looked back up at his friends. "We are sooo going to rock the Academy next year," He said with a smile that his friends couldn't see but could definitely feel. They smiled back at the blonde and nodded in agreement as he dispersed his armor.

A sudden thought came to Lee and he asked, "Do either of you guys know what time it is?" Naruto and Isaribi looked down at their new 'watches' and discovered that they couldn't tell time.

Naruto looked up at Livelyjolt. "These watches have spliced animal DNA in them as well special armor. Why is it that they can't tell time?"

The kids could tell that if the Monitor had shoulders it would have shrugged as it answered, "_There wasn't any room for a clock. But I can tell you that it is now an hour before the sun will be at its highest in the sky._"

"So it's eleven o'clock then." Isaribi said. She then looked at her best friends and asked, "Do you think we should head back up? I mean, we have been down here for close to an hour."

Both Naruto and Lee nodded. All three went over to the rope, but before they could start climbing Naruto said, "Wait."

Isaribi and Lee turned to the blonde who was making his way back over to the weapons. Once he reached them, he pulled down the twin katanas and used a special back holster that was hanging below the weapons to stow them on his back.

Naruto turned back to his friends and said, "I think we should each get one of these." Both of his friends shrugged before they walked over by Naruto. Isaribi decided to take the sai while Lee took the nunchuks.

Together, the three went back to the rope but they stopped, looked at each other before nodding and bowed to Livelyjolt. They then climbed up the rope back to the forest behind the Namikaze mansion.

Back at the bottom of the tunnel, Livelyjolt mused to himself, "_Those three will become great one day._"

Back with the kids, they decided to cover up the hole in the ground and walked back to the mansion where a now rainbow-free Kushina was standing worriedly on the back porch. Once she saw the three, she sighed in relief but was curious at the items they were carrying back with them.

When she asked what had happened to them the children told her all about what had happened down in the cache. When they had finished the four of them decided to tell no one else about what occurred down there and just make up whatever lie would seem appropriate since it would be dangerous if an enemy nation learned that there was items from before over five-thousand years ago in Konoha.

Kushina then told them that she was going to start teaching them a little bit about the three jutsu areas for a shinobi as well as try to see if she could find someone who could teach them how to use their new weapons.

Life was about to get interesting….

**(End Chapter)**

**Unknown-nin345: Hello, there faithful readers, I apologize for the long wait but I was uncertain where to go with this and I had a bunch of stuff happen to my family lately so I kinda forgot about this story for a while.**

**As you can see, I'm bringing in stuff from other cartoons/ videogames/ TV/ shows/ books, here's a list so far: TMNT Fast Forward (the weapons), Sonic (the speed shoes and Isaribi's levitation shoes), Halo (the MJOLNIR armor), Star Wars (Mandolorian language), Ben 10 Alien Force (the Omnitrix), and finally Power Rangers (the Morphers; i just had to give Naruto orange armor). **

**Now you all got to see where the Mandolorian language came from that I was using in earlier chapters. Bet you weren't expecting me to throw in the Monitor and Isaribi were you? Come on, were you? In addition, to stop you all now before you start: No, Naruto and Isaribi won't be getting together; She's going to pair up with Lee.**

**Thank you and Good Night/Morning/Afternoon (whenever the heck you read this).**

**Please R&R.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**Unknown-nin345: Alright, one of the reviews I received informed me that the way I portray Immortals is different from the Highlander series and suggested that I name it as an AU Highlander. **

**Just to let you readers know, the Immortals in my story, who haven't already reached the prime of their lives, age to their prime and then stop. After all, what if an Immortal was killed when they were a kid and/or had a little kid mentality like Mikey? (See episode 3 of season four of Highlander) He/she would spend eternity like that unless/until their head got cut off. **

**Anyway, here's Chapter Four of Fukyuu Shinobi.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other ideas, lines, weapons, clothes, and/or names from other books, video games, manga, fan fictions, and/or movies.**  
**********************************************************************

**-- Five years later --**

'_Twelve years…'_ Naruto Uzumaki thought as he lay on top of the Namikaze clan house.

The blonde-haired immortal watched the clouds float by as he reflected on the twelve years he had spent as Uzumaki Kushina's adopted son. Five years ago, his two best friends and he had gone down a tunnel and met one, if not the last, of the Monitors. The three had each taken a small bit of what laid in the cache in order to become better shinobi even though they had hidden what the stuff could do, except the weapons, from everyone outside the Namikaze manor, except for the Hokage.

Now, after four years of studying in the Academy the three friends were going to take their final exam in hopes of becoming genin. A smile floated on Naruto's lips at that thought; he was an over 600 year old warrior for Kami's sake! A simple test like the one at the Academy would be no problem for him.

"Oi Naruto! If you're done being a statue it's time to go!" A voice shouted from down in the street. The blonde stood up and looked down in the street where his two best friends, Rock Lee and Musashi Isaribi, were standing, holding each other's hand.

This had been coming for a while, Naruto reflected. Both Lee and Isaribi had been showing signs of liking each other as more than a friend since the beginning of the final year at the Academy. So, Naruto and Kushina put their heads together to figure out a way to get the two together. The plot the two matchmakers eventually conjured up succeeded; after half a year Lee and Isaribi were still going strong.

Naruto leapt down from the roof and took a closer look at his friends.

Lee was wearing his trademark sleeveless black karate gi with a green trimming that showed off his arms' hard-earned muscles and a green belt. Over his legs were black shinobi pants that had two green lines running down the side with a kunai/shuriken holster hanging near one of his nunchuks. On his right wrist, as always, was the omnitrix, they had explained it off as an heirloom from his dead parents which kept the other students from prying. On his feet were black combat boots with neon-green laces. His shiny black hair was in its usual ponytail, but Lee had lately taken to spiking the front of his hair.

Isaribi was wearing a light blue, form-fitting tank top with a mesh shirt underneath to hide her impressive, for a twelve year-old, cleavage from eyes that liked to stare. Attached to the tank top was a light blue sleeve with a black line spiraling down it on her right arm to cover up her Morpher. When she was asked why she did that, the black-haired girl responded by saying that her idol, Yuuhei Kurenai, did the same thing. She wore a light blue mini-skirt with mesh leggings underneath to keep anyone who chanced a glance up the skirt, which only reached to the middle of her thighs, from actually seeing anything. On her feet she was wearing black shinobi tabi. Around her curvy waist, the black-haired girl wore a black leather belt where she stored her sai as well as attached a first aid kit along with the standard kunai/shuriken holster. Finally, her midnight-black hair was tied back in a braided ponytail that came down to her round butt.

Naruto himself was wearing a dark orange jacket with onyx flames along the edges, which seemed to ripple and wave across of their own accord, thanks to a Genjutsu applied to the cloth, that he left open to reveal the orange t-shirt he wore with a large black spiral in the middle (along with his well-earned muscles); his Morpher rested comfortably on his left wrist underneath the sleeve of the jacket. On his back rested the twin katana he had brought with him from the cache five years ago. Covering his legs were onyx shinobi pants that had dark orange flames running along the sides with two kunai/shuriken holsters resting on each hip, four in total. His feet rested in black combat boots similar to Lee's only his had neon-orange laces. His bright blonde hair was still as spiky as ever and Naruto had kept it short, although he tied two bangs that had been falling on either side of his face into two short braids (Why? He wasn't really sure).

"Ready to kick some ass Naruto?" Lee asked with an eager smile, holding out a closed fist to the blonde-haired boy.

Naruto smiled back and bumped fists with his friend as he said, "Absolutely, we're going to rock the final exam."

Isaribi shook her head amusedly at the two's attitude even as she tried to hide her own eager smile and whispered, "Boys."

"Aw, don't be like that Isa-chan," Lee said before he pecked her on the cheek, which made the black-haired girl blush lightly.

Naruto turned down the road and started walking as he said, "C'mon, let's get going before you two descend into full lovey-dovey mode. We got a test to ace after all!"

The two didn't reply as they followed behind Naruto. The blonde was personally glad that the Academy started as early as it did since it meant that very few of Konoha's villagers were up and about, which spared him from experiencing the glares that most of the adults sent his way.

Soon enough the three arrived at the Academy and began walking through the courtyard. Suddenly the blonde's hand shot up and snatched an apple that had been flying straight at his head right out of the air. Naruto looked over at the one responsible for the thrown apple with a small grin.

"You missed Teme."

Standing underneath one of the trees in the courtyard was Uchiha Sasuke (he's wearing the same clothes as in canon). A year after Naruto and his friends had started the Academy, Sasuke's older brother Itachi had massacred the entire Uchiha clan, leaving his younger brother as the sole survivor. The 'Last Uchiha', as the villagers began calling Sasuke, drew in on himself and devoted his whole life to killing his older brother. At least until Naruto intervened.

The blonde quickly grew fed up and disgusted with how Sasuke was reacting to the Massacre since the two were in the same class. One day after school, Sasuke was practicing late and Naruto, who had also hung back at the Academy, questioned his motives so much that it left Sasuke stunned for a full hour after Naruto left.

During that hour, and the next day, the Uchiha reflected on Naruto's words before he decided to change his goal; now instead of wanting to kill Itachi, Sasuke only wanted to defeat his older brother in battle so that he could bring Itachi back to Konoha to stand trial for the crime that was committed and find out the truth.

Even now, after four years, whenever Sasuke would look at Naruto he would always remember vividly what occurred that afternoon…

-- (Flashback) --

An eight year-old Sasuke stood a distance away from a thick wooden post that had a picture of his older brother taped to it, glaring at the picture. Suddenly, the black-haired boy angrily let fly shuriken and kunai alike at the post. A lot of them managed to hit the picture, tearing it to shreds; before the boy found he had used up all of his projectiles.

He gave off a frustrated grunt when he saw that at least half of his projectiles had missed the picture. The black-haired boy straightened when he felt eyes boring into his back. He turned around and saw a stoic Naruto standing a little ways away.

"What do you want?" Sasuke rudely asked.

Naruto was silent for a while and Sasuke had just turned back to the wooden post when the blonde spoke up, "I'm just trying to figure out this pathetic sight before me."

Sasuke froze and quietly asked, "What are you talking about?"

Naruto walked closer to Sasuke as he said, "You saw your brother kill your clan; saw him kill your mother and father, and all you can think of doing is what you've always done: try to be like him."

Sasuke spun around and pointed a finger at Naruto as he shouted, "What the hell would you know?!"

Naruto stopped walking and said, "I know that my mother and father wouldn't want me to become a murderer. I know that even if I had a brother and he killed my parents, that they wouldn't want me to kill him." He stared hard at Sasuke before he said, "Why not try to be step out of your brother's shadow for once? You can still fight him, but don't kill him like he killed your family. Don't make the mistake he did."

"Shut up. I will do whatever it takes to kill him, even if I have to sell my soul to the Shinigami," Sasuke responded. He turned to leave when Naruto's next question stopped him cold.

"And what if Itachi hadn't killed your whole clan? If it meant you could get more power, would you have killed them? Would you do that just to be powerful enough to kill your brother? Would you leave your mother forever regretting birthing her two sons, just so you could satisfy you petty need for revenge? Revenge is never a straight line Sasuke. It's a forest, and like a forest it's easy to lose your way... to get lost... to forget where you came in. Don't lose yourself Sasuke."

Sasuke turned to look back at Naruto, but when he looked at where the blonde had been standing the boy wasn't there. Sasuke stayed where he was for an hour and was silent for the rest of the day and the next one as he thought hard over the question.

-- (End Flashback) --

Sasuke mentally shook the memory from his head and focused on the present. He smirked and asked, "How do you know I wasn't planning on you to catch it?"

Naruto shrugged before he bit into the apple and tossed it back at Sasuke as he said, "Thanks for the snack."

Sasuke silently caught the apple before he tossed it over his shoulder into a nearby garbage can. The duck butt-haired boy then walked over to the three and asked, "You all ready for the exam?"

Isaribi shrugged as she answered, "Shouldn't be too hard. After all, it's not like we're going to be put into life-or-death situations right off the bat."

"Anticipate, but never assume anything Isaribi," Iruka said as he appeared behind the four, causing them all to jump slightly.

Naruto spun around and shouted, "Stop doing that Iruka-sensei! One of these days you'll scare someone into a coma!"

Iruka laughed and said, "Be careful about what you say Naruto. I just might turn this into a jutsu and use it on you." He laughed again at Naruto's face and said, "Now get inside, class will be starting soon and I'm sure that you four will pass the exam."

"If I do not then I will run fifty laps around Konoha with two large boulders tied to my back!" Lee shouted to the general exasperation of the nearby people.

Maito Gai, who happened to be doing just that as he passed by the Academy, shouted encouragingly, "That's the spirit Lee!" before continuing on his way.

Before the black-haired boy could respond to his idol's shout, Isaribi grabbed him by the front of his gi and pulled him into a searing kiss. Naruto and Sasuke shook their heads at this as they continued the walk to the classroom while Iruka used the Shushin no Jutsu and disappeared in a poof of smoke. The ringing of the Academy's bell broke the two lovebirds from their kissing fest and made them rush into the Academy to their classroom.

Iruka patiently waited for his students to calm down and come to order so that they could listen to his instructions…yeah right.

"SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!!" The brown-haired teacher shouted using his patented 'Evil Big-head Technique'. After the students immediately quieted down Iruka continued on calmly, "Alright, it's been four years since you all started learning how to be a shinobi here at the academy and now it's time for you to take your final exam."

--- **(A/N: I'm going to skip the final exam since there isn't really anything that can be changed or added to it that you all, haven't already seen, most likely. I'll give you a quick list of the important students who passed: Naruto, Lee, Isaribi, Ino, Hinata, Chouji, Shikamaru, Sasuke, & Shino. I absolutely do not like Sakura so she didn't pass, like it should have been in the manga (Sorry to all those who like Sakura, but that's how I am). Kiba was simply placed in another class.) ---**

Iruka smiled as he looked out over his students, soon to be his former students if they managed to pass the second test to ensure they would keep their headbands.

"All right, those of you who are sitting before me have passed the genin exam and are well on your way to becoming shinobi of Konohagakure. I'm proud to have been your sensei. Tomorrow you will all report here at noon to find out what team you will be assigned to," the scarred teacher instructed to the class before he smirked and waved a hand towards the door. "Now get the hell out of here."

-- (Later that night) --

'_The moon sure is beautiful tonight,'_ Naruto thought to himself as he hopped through the trees surrounding Konoha, sometimes performing acrobatic feats that would have made professional gymnasts seethe in jealousy.

The blonde immortal had come out a little bit earlier to do some tree-hopping to clear his head, something he preferred doing at night since it would provide him the best possible chance of being alone. Right now, the cause for his moonlight tree-hopping was one specific question that kept repeating over and over in his head: Should he tell Lee and Isaribi about him being an immortal, the history of the immortals, and that he was the container for the Kyuubi no Kitsune?

The last part of that question brought him to a pause on a tree branch as his hand drifted down to his stomach where the customized Shiki Fuuin seal was. For a while he had been trying to contact the immortal Bijuu resting inside of him, but whenever he reached the spot where she was contained by the seal in his mindscape, she would either be sleeping or be raging about cursing the Yondaime and him. Thankfully, he was never noticed during the times he visited the seal, so for now he was safe from her wrath during one of her moods.

The blonde sighed to himself and sat down against the tree trunk. He really wanted to just talk to Akane and hopefully get rid of the anger she held towards him. Naruto took a deep breath before he closed his eyes and plunged into the depths of his mind to try once more.

When he opened his eyes again, he was standing in the town where he had first met Akane. The immortal looked down at his mental self and sighed when he saw that he was still a blonde-haired boy that looked twelve years old. Shaking off the slight depression, he began treading down a path that had recently become second-nature to him.

When he reached the area where his mental representation of the seal (a giant version of the tent where he had received his orders to attack the Inu general, minus the sides) was; he was surprised to see that Akane, in her nine-tailed fox form, was calmly sitting as if the two of them had arranged for this meeting to happen at this specific time.

As soon as her fox eyes landed on him, a concerned frown formed on her fox face as she asked. "Who are you? Your scent and chakra feel familiar, but I do not recognize you at all."

Naruto waved a hand over his body, transforming into his black-haired form before the sealing, as he said "Does this help Akane-chan?" Her eyes widened comically while Naruto changed back to the form he had been for the last twelve years.

"What happened? The last thing I remember is some black-haired man wearing a black and orange spiral mask with a single eyehole insulting me," She asked as she changed into her hanyou form.

Naruto sat down and explained to her what had happened since then along with who the black-haired man was. When he had finished he asked a question that had been bugging him since he had revealed to Akane who he was, "Akane-chan, not that I mind any, but why aren't you angry at me? For the past twelve years whenever I came here, you would be raging about in the cage whenever you were awake."

Akane sighed and angrily crossed her arms under her breasts before she said, "Back in the cave before I attacked Konoha, that bastard Uchiha did something to me that drew out my slightly lingering anger towards you about the paperwork incident and multiplied it into a mindless rage." She looked up at him and smiled lightly, "To be honest, I had forgiven you for it long ago, but I still didn't like that I had to do all that paperwork by myself. So when I had arrived at Konoha I was only running on that anger until your technique put that burn mark on my tail, which increased the rage I was feeling. I only recently managed to work the last bit of that anger out of my system and here I am."

Naruto smiled back at her and said, "Arigatou for forgiving me Akane-chan and I am sorry about making that burn mark on your tail. I was just trying to hold you back long enough for Minato to get the seals set up. Speaking of which, I could go to Sarutobi soon and get the scroll that has your body sealed in it so that you can get out of here."

"I would like that Naruto-kun. But something has been bothering me since you showed up, why don't you look like yourself but a near carbon copy of your friend?" Akane asked as she gestured at his body.

Naruto scowled and said, "Minato-baka made the impression seal so that only his blood could remove it and since I spent twelve years in this form I guess my mind made it my mental image as well. So I'm stuck like this unless I can find some other way to remove the seal." Akane's giggle made the blonde pout and before he could say something to stop here, he turned his head to the side and seemed to be listening to something that only he could hear. The blonde turned back to Akane and explained, "There's something going on outside."

The red-haired vixen smiled and made a shooing motion with her hand as she mockingly said, "Well then, you'd better go play the hero Naruto-kun." Naruto smirked at her and nodded before he faded out of the mindscape. After he had gone, Akane lowered her hand while her smile turned more serene. "You'll always be my hero," she whispered to the emptiness around her.

Naruto opened his eyes to the real world around him and stood up before he looked around for the source of the disturbance he had felt. The sound of metal piercing metal, cloth, and flesh reached his ears after a moment of silence. The blonde immortal quickly turned and sped towards the origin of the sound. A minute or two later he came upon the sight of Iruka pinned to the side of a small shack by a dozen kunai and shuriken while Mizuki, another teacher at the shinobi academy, stood a small distance away and was gloating about having stole the forbidden scroll of sealing.

"….And do you know the best part Iruka?" Mizuki snidely asked, never noticing that Naruto was slowly and silently maneuvering himself behind the pale-skinned teacher. "The best part is that I did while henged as Naruto! Now the whole village will blame him for the disappearance of the scroll," A sinister grin stretched across his as he continued, "Along with your death."

Iruka was sure that his teeth would soon be reduced to nothing at the rate he was grinding them together. He had just been lounging about at his apartment when he had heard the news that someone had stolen the forbidden scroll of seals from the Hokage Tower. So, he had gone into the forest to do a little bit of searching when he suddenly found himself pinned to the side of this shack and the man he was sure had been his best friend jumped out of the surrounding foliage and began bragging about the deed he had just committed. He had nearly lost control of his emotions until he noticed his blonde-haired student sneaking up behind Mizuki.

Naruto saw that Iruka had seen him so he held a finger up to his lips before dragging a thumb across his throat and then pointed at Mizuki. The blonde saw the recognition in Iruka's eyes and resumed his sneak to Mizuki.

Iruka knew he needed to buy some time for Naruto so he asked, "Why do it Mizuki? Why betray Konoha?"

An insane glint entered Mizuki's eyes as the pale-haired chunin answered, "Why? It's simple; I did it for power! And when I give this scroll to Orochimaru-sama he'll grant me more power than I could ever dream of!"

"Too bad that's not going to happen," Naruto whispered into Mizuki's ear and, before the chunin could turn around, beheaded the traitor with a swipe of one of his katanas. The head sailed a sort distance away, an expression of surprise painted on to its features, as the body collapsed to the forest floor as blood slowly drained from the decapitated corpse.

Naruto shook the blood from his blade and sheathed it before walking over to where Iruka was still pinned to the shack. When the blonde reached him he shook his head and asked, "What am I going to do with you? Getting stuck to the wall like this, it's embarrassing."

Iruka glared playfully as he said, "Get me down Naruto or else I'll be sure to tell your mother just what you were doing out here."

"Hey! I just saved your life, how's about showing a little gratitude here? Besides, if you did tell Kaa-chan about tonight the worst that'd happen to me is a lecture about waiting to kill my target before I said something," Naruto responded as he pulled out the kunais and shuriken.

After he was dislodged from the wall of the shack, Iruka walked over to the forbidden scroll and picked it up along with Mizuki's head. The brown-haired chunin looked over at Naruto and said, "I'll take care of this Naruto. Do you think you can take care of the body?"

Naruto gave him a thumb up and Iruka nodded before he disappeared with a puff of smoke. The blonde turned towards the decapitated corpse and performed a short set of hand seals before he breathed a small stream of fire onto the corpse and watched it burn. When the body was nothing more than ash the blonde used a weak water bullet to wash the remains away.

Once he was done he turned towards the direction of the Namikaze clan house and speedily made his way to it. He mind had been made up by his killing of Mizuki; he was going to tell those close to him his secrets, starting with the woman he had been calling 'Kaa-san' for the last twelve years.

-- (One conversation later) --

Kushina Uzumaki was normally an unflappable woman, but what she just learned left her gaping in silence for a good two minutes. She had just learned that the boy she had called 'son' for the last twelve years wasn't even a boy, but he was over 600 years old and that he was her late husband's closest friend before the sealing of Kyuubi.

At first she had been hurt that Minato had kept the truth about Naruto a secret from her, he had only gone so far as to say that he was going to seal the Kyuubi into a child because a child's chakra system was the only thing that could support the strain the infinite youkai of the Kyuubi no Kitsune.

Then Naruto explained to her how if they had used a normal child along with the first sealing method they had found; then the Kyuubi's soul and youkai would have slowly merged with the child's. However, with the modified seals that Minato and he had come up with a normal child wouldn't have survived but he could since he was immortal.

Then he went on to explain that the Bijuu weren't demons, but immortals like him who had been given their positions by Kami-sama. Finally, he told her the story of his life from the time he became an immortal to the present.

"So that's my story kaa-chan, what do you think?" The blonde-haired immortal asked.

Kushina sported a confused look as she asked, "Why call me your mother when your real one died all those years ago?"

"You had no obligation to raise me after the Kyuubi was sealed into me, but you still did knowing the risks you would be taking as the mother of the 'demon-child'. The least I can do is to call you kaa-san," Naruto explained with a smile and air-quotes at 'demon-child'.

The redhead moved closer and wrapped the blonde in a heartfelt hug which he returned, "Thank you Naruto-kun. Minato and I wanted to have our own child, but because of the Kyuubi attack that dream was shattered. That was part of the reason why I adopted you and I'm glad that I did." The two shared a quiet moment together before Kushina pulled out of the hug and asked, "Now then, are you going to tell Lee-kun and Isaribi-chan about all of this?"

Naruto sighed and looked down at the floor, "I want to, I really do. But, I'm afraid they'll either hate me for the Kyuubi part or the 'me-being-Immortal' part. A lot of people I knew simply up and left after I told them I was immortal. I don't want that to happen with Lee and Isaribi."

Kushina laid a comforting hand on Naruto's shoulder and said, "If they're your true friends then they will understand, but they might be a little irritated that you didn't tell them before now."

Naruto nodded, "I hope so. Hey, isn't Lee spending the night here with Isaribi?" At his adopted mother's nod he stood and began walking, "Then I'll tell them tonight and get it out of the way."

**--End Chapter--**

**Unknown-nin345: Alright, that's the end of chapter four for Fukyuu Shinobi. Next chapter is going to hold the reactions of Lee and Isaribi along with the team assignments and a timeskip to their first C-rank mission.**

**Until next time! R&R please!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**Unknown-nin345: Welcome readers to the fifth chapter of Fukyuu Shinobi. In this chapter we find out whether or not Lee and Isaribi will accept Naruto after his reveals his two biggest secrets.**

**ALSO, I have decided on Naruto's pairing. It won't happen for while, but it will be Naruto xAkane(Kyuubi) x Oc. The Naruto-Akane part especially won't happen for a while. The reason why will be revealed in one of the next couple chapters.**

**ALSO, ALSO: I'm sorry it took me so long to get this out. School and new story ideas have kept me busy.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of the items mentioned that I've incorporated from other areas of viewing entertainment.**

****

~~ The Next Morning ~~

Naruto, Isaribi, and Lee were silent as they walked to the Academy that morning, the blonde-haired immortal sporting a fading red handprint on his left cheek. Last night when he had gone to tell Lee (who had moved into one of the Namikaze clan's sub-houses near the main mansion when they had started learning at the academy) and Isaribi about his two secrets, he had walked in on Isaribi changing for bed. Thankfully, she had only gotten down to her bra and panties. But before the blonde could leave, Isaribi had spun to him and delivered a neck-spinning slap that left a pulsing red mark on his cheek while shouting a battle-cry inherent to all women: "PERVERT!!!"

She then (literally) kicked him out into the hallway just as Lee walked up and took one look at the semi-conscious blonde before he broke down laughing. After Lee had calmed down, Naruto got him to get Isaribi to let them into her room so he could tell them something "very, very important".

Both of them were stunned, to say the least, by what they learned that night. Lee and Isaribi were silent for a couple minutes before Isaribi broke the silence by asking, "So you're not a virgin?"

Lee and Naruto promptly fell to the floor face-first.

When he had recovered, Naruto had asked the two why they were being so calm after what he had just revealed to them. Both admitted that they had figured out the Kyuubi had been sealed inside of him before now and that discovering he was immortal wasn't too much of a stretch.

The three friends spent the rest of the night by listening to Naruto's tales of his former life before he settled down in Konoha seventy-something years ago, around the time when the village was first being founded. They had been awed as the blonde immortal recounted epic battles between humans and demons back before humans began developing the use of chakra, times when all the humans had to fight the demons with were their brains and their weapons of war. They shared Naruto's tears when he told them of the night his lost his mother, and then of the night he lost his brother and his sister-in-law. Morning came soon, and the three got ready to begin their careers as shinobi.

They arrived at the academy and silently took their seats at the back of the mostly empty classroom. Each of them slightly adjusted their hitai-ate's; Lee was using his as a belt after he had replaced the blue cloth with a green one, Isaribi had tied hers around her left bicep and kept the dark blue cloth, and finally Naruto had his in the traditional spot on his forehead with the blue cloth being switched out for a black one that Naruto could unroll over his spiky blonde hair but wouldn't cover his side-braids.

Soon, the classroom became filled with the muttering of the students who had passed the graduation exam. Iruka entered the room and after trying unsuccessfully to get the soon-to-be genins attention, once again used his patented 'Evil Big-Head Technique' to get the class quiet.

"Thank you," Iruka said once all chatter died down. "Now then, those of you gathered before me have shown that you possess the necessary skills to become genin of Konohagakure. I hope you prove yourselves worthy of the title and that you will all uphold the Will of Fire. I will now announce the genin teams:"

-- (Teams 1-6 are unimportant) –

"Team 7 will consist of: Uchiha Sasuke, Aburame Shino, and Yamanaka Ino." The scarred teacher, as well as the other students, was infinitely thankful that Ino wasn't a Sasuke fangirl.

"Team 8 will be made up of: Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and Hyuuga Hinata."

"Team 9 is still in circulation from last year so I'll move on to Team 10, which will be made up of: Uzumaki Naruto, Rock Lee, and Musashi Isaribi." "YES!" Both of the boys mentioned shouted together while their female teammate simply giggled at their antics.

Before Iruka could reprimand the two, a loud voice shouted, "DYNAMIC ENTRY!!"

The door went flying off its hinges, almost hitting the brown-haired chunin, as a black-haired man clad in green bodysuit, orange leg warmers, and a jounin vest flew into the room. He came to a stop in front of Iruka's desk and gave the entire class a bright 'pinging' smile as well as a 'thumbs up'.

"Yosh! My name is Maito Gai, the Green Beast of Konoha, and I am here to inform Team 10 that I am their sensei!" He shouted at the top of his lungs.

The three members of the aforementioned team stood up and waved in greeting as they said at the same time, "Hello Gai-sensei."

"Ah! So I shall have the honor of teaching you three once again. Very well then my youthful students, we shall reconvene at Training Ground 25. I will meet you there!" The spandex-wearing jounin shouted before he opened a window and jumped out through the opening, a fading shout of 'Youth!' floating on the wind.

As the three genin of Team 10 filed out of the room, Iruka just sighed as he turned back to his desk, "At least he opened the window this time."

-- Training Ground 25 --

The three genin arrived at the training ground and found their sensei waiting for them. As they approached, Gai smiled softly at them and gestured to log in front of him. Once the three had taken their seats, Gai began to speak.

"It is good to see you once again my pupils. I must admit that I had not been told whom I would be teaching, only that I would be receiving team ten. Normally, you three would be given a test to ascertain the level of teamwork you possessed with each other, but since I know you three I am fairly certain we can skip over the test," he said, bringing forth grins from his genin.

"Therefore, we will be able to focus our time on training and completing enough D-rank missions in order to qualify for a C-rank, thus proving our Flames of Youth burn brightly. Let's get to work! Yosh!!"

**---- (Timeskip: One and a half months later) ----**

Naruto, covered in a multitude of scratches, groaned in pain as he shuffled to the Hokage Tower. His teammates were slightly better off then him since the object of their mission had chosen, for some reason, to focus on the blonde shinobi. The object of their mission was the hissing, spitting, clawing, scratching fluff-ball of absolute terror and carnage otherwise known as: Tora the cat.

Said cat was currently locked up in a cage to keep from running away since the only person on the team keep up with the cat's surprising speed was Lee, and even then the furball would run away given the chance. This had been the seventh time team ten had been sent after Tora since (although they got attacked the most) they could find Tora the fastest. Team ten arrived at the area where the Hokage would assign missions (with Iruka acting as an assistant since the Ninja Academy was still on a vacation break) and stood before the Leader of their village.

Gai (the only one without any scratches on his body) saluted the Hokage and said, "Mission complete Hokage-sama. Tora the cat has been captured."

Sarutobi nodded and gestured for Iruka to take the caged cat as he said, "Very good Team Ten, the pay for the mission shall be transferred to your accounts." He shuffled about some papers, "Now then, from looking at your records I can see that you have completed more than the required number of D-rank missions to qualify for something of a higher level. Do you think your team is ready to take on a C-rank Gai?"

Gai looked down at his genin and, after receiving a nod from each of them, turned back to the Hokage as said, "Absolutely Hokage-sama. The teamwork between my genin is nigh perfect and their skills are more than a match for anything we should encounter on a C-rank mission. I am vastly positive that these three are not only the strongest of the rookie teams, but they also have teamwork that could rival that of the Sanin's when they were in their prime. Yosh!"

Sarutobi's eyes softened slightly at the mention of his former students before he nodded his head, "Excellent Gai." The aged leader turned to Iruka and asked him to bring in one of the clients before he turned back to Team 10, "A bridge builder from Nami no Kuni has come to Konoha in search of a team to guard him as he constructs a bridge that should connect the island of Enmu-uindo**(1)** to the mainland. Since this is a C-rank mission, the most you should expect to encounter is just the random bandit group here and there."

After the Sandaime had finished his explanation, the client entered. He was a middle-aged man with a black goatee and short black hair wearing simple clothes. He looked over the three genin, each of them sporting serious looks, and nodded slightly.

"My name is Tazuna, a master bridge-builder from Nami no Kuni, and I hope you three will be able to protect me well enough for me to finish my bridge," the man said respectfully.

Gai chose to answer their client, "You will have nothing to fear Tazuna-san. My genin are the best to come out of our Shinobi Academy for many years and I have no doubt they will be able to protect you since this is a C-rank mission." Three sets of eyes narrowed slightly when Tazuna gave off the tiniest of twitches at the mention of the mission's rank.

"Yes, well, I would like to leave as soon as possible since the bridge I am building is very important," Tazuna nervously said.

Gai nodded and turned to his team, "Prepare for about two weeks of travel, then we shall rendezvous at the south gate as soon as soon as possible."

The three genins nodded and quickly made their way to the Namikaze mansion. After packing for the mission and leaving a note for Kushina, who was mysteriously absent from the mansion, they quickly roof-hopped over to the south gate. The three genin arrived to find Gai and Tazuna already waiting for them, and after a quick look-over of their equipment, the group of five set out from Konohagakure. They made good time, considering they had to travel at the speed Tazuna set, and didn't run into any trouble until the second day of their travel.

The three genin were chatting about nothing in particular while Gai and Tazuna were bringing up the rear. Suddenly the group came upon a puddle in the middle of the road, bringing immediate suspicion to the four shinobi since it was the middle of the dry season of the summer.

"Isaribi, aru'e?" Naruto asked as his hands subtly tensed his muscles in preparation. Ever since the night he had told them of his past, Naruto had begun instructing Isaribi and Lee in the Mando`a language. The two couldn't hold full conversations with it yet, but they could get their point across.

The black-haired girl closed her eyes and 'felt' the water as the group slowly drew closer. Another thing Isaribi had discovered was that, as she grew older, she was able to establish a connection to any body of water that was within a certain distance of her. She couldn't tell exactly what was in the water, all she could see was just general shapes, but she was never wrong.

"Elek, t'ad aru'e," she whispered with her eyes still closed.

The entire group passed by the puddle with no problems, but once all five of them had passed by two cloaked figures rose up from the puddle and immediately charged towards the bridge builder. Gai quickly grabbed onto Tazuna and hauled him off to the sidelines while the three genin confronted to the two figures.

Naruto got there first and easily sliced through the spiked chain weapon the two nuke-nins wielded between them with his twin katana, forcing the two to separate. Lee came in with a flying kick that struck one of nuke-nins in their head, sending him flying back headfirst into a tree where he collapsed into unconsciousness. Isaribi went after the other one, leading with one of her sai to deflect the claw weapon this nin wore and stabbed his right hip with her second sai. Before he could even scream out in pain, the flat side of Naruto's katana smashed into his head, sending him into the same realm as his partner.

Gai reappeared with Tazuna still at his side. "Excellent work my students!" the bushy-browed man said as he moved forward. After a quick moment of looking them over, the jounin straightened up and said, "These two are nuke-nins from Kirigakure no Sato, commonly known in the Bingo Book as 'The Demon Brothers'. Since they are missing ninja, there is a reward for their capture."

Once he had tied the two up and made sure that they would be unconscious for a while, Gai turned to the bridge builder with a stern look on his face. "Tazuna-san, why is it that you have nuke-nin coming after you? As a C-rank mission, the worst that we should be expecting to encounter are bandits. The presence of these ninja already moves this up to a B-rank. Please explain to me why I shouldn't just take my team back to Konoha."

Tazuna looked down at the ground for a moment before he pulled off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. When he looked back up at the shinobi gathered, his eyes were filled with sadness, "In Nami no Kuni, especially on the island I am from, we have recently come under the control of one Iyashi** (translation: Greedy)** Gatō."

One of Gai's large eyebrows rose up in surprise, "The owner of Gatō's Shipping Company?"

The bridge builder nodded. "The same, but what you probably don't know is that his shipping enterprise is really a cover for some of his shadier operations. The primary one is smuggling, after all if you control the ships then there is no reason to be worried about having anything 'contraband'." The old man waved a hand noncommittally, "But enough of that. Some time ago, Gatō's company began absorbing Nami's various shipping companies into his own thus eliminating his competition until only his remained. Once he had done this, Gatō began putting forth outrageous taxes on any imports to Nami, making it harder for us to get needed materials like food or clothing."

The four shinobi looked at each other before Naruto asked, "Why didn't anybody stand up to him? You guys probably had his thugs outnumbered at one point in time so you should have been able to drive him off."

Tazuna was silent for a long moment before he started speaking, "There was one man who never feared Gatō or his thugs. Gatō knew this and he knew that if given time this man could unite the villagers of Nami to rise up against him so he sent out a group of his toughest thugs. They captured the man, the thugs suffering some loses, and brought him to the center of our largest town. There…he had the man beaten terribly before executing him publicly." The bridge builder sighed sadly, "Instead of raising people's anger to Gatō, the brutal murder of that man served to dishearten all of Nami. So we have been living in fear, until now."

Tazuna drew himself up and with determination in his voice stated, "I am building a bridge to the mainland. A bridge that will bring back the hope of my people and drive Gatō out of business."

Gai nodded his head in response to Tazuna's statement, "Why did you not simply explain this to Hokage-sama and request a higher ranked mission?"

"Unfortunately, because of Gatō's machinations, we were barely able to scrape together enough money to even afford the cost of a C-rank mission," Tazuna explained.

The spandex-wearing jounin turned to his genin and his look was enough for them to understand what he was asking, as one the three genin nodded. Gai nodded to himself before he looked up at the sky and whistled a sharp, short tune. Moments later, a small bird flew down and landed on Gai's shoulder.

The jounin quickly wrote a small message on a slip of paper which he handed to the bird that promptly took off. Gai then turned to the others and said, "We shall continue with the mission. I just sent off a missive to Hokage-sama informing him of the situation and requesting reinforcements in case we encounter more shinobi while on the mission."

Tazuna bowed to the four shinobi, "Thank you shinobi-sans. I will be greatly in your debt should I not die anytime soon." The shinobi just nodded in response and the five continued on their journey to Nami no Kuni.

Soon enough, the group of five finally reached the body of water that separated Nami no Kuni and Hi no Kuni where a boat was waiting for them. Once they had all piled in, the boatman started to push the boat slowly through the fog-covered waters. Both Lee and Isaribi were filled with astonishment at the sight of the large but un-finished bridge while Naruto just looked at it with an appraising eye. After a couple more minutes of silent travel, the group finally made it to the shore of the island and watched the boatman turn his ship around and sail off into the fog.

Quickly getting into a defensive formation around Tazuna, the group set off in the direction the old bridge builder had said his house was. As they walked amidst the bowed trees of the forest, the four shinobi felt increasingly uneasy about something they couldn't explain…something that seemed to linger on the very edge of their senses. When they came upon a large clearing with a small lake in the center of it, the feeling seemed to rise to a crescendo.

Isaribi suddenly turned and launched a sebon needle at a seemingly random spot of the trees surrounding the clearing, a kunai from Naruto and Lee following not even a second behind it. They waited a second after hearing the three weapons collide with the tree before they began to slowly approach the location while Gai moved to cover Tazuna. Soon, the three genin reached where their weapons had been thrown and moved aside a bush that was in their way.

Cowering up against a tree was a snow white bunny rabbit. Silently, Isaribi shooed the bunny along while Lee and Naruto studied the immediate area. Naruto pointed out the slight indentation in the grass that was in the shape of a crouching person while Lee picked up a single lock of black hair. As one the three genin nodded and quickly made their way back to where their sensei stood waiting.

Before they could report anything though, a sudden whooshing sound could be heard all. At the last second the fived ducked down just in time to evade a large kitchen-knife-looking sword. They watched as the blade slammed right into a tree with a loud 'thunk' and a man suddenly appeared on the hilt of the large sword.

"Well, well, well," the man said in a slightly gravelly voice, "three cute little genin fresh out of the Academy. I wonder how long they'll be able to last against me." As he asked this question the man sent out a wave of KI directed towards the three genin who, aside from a slight tensing of their muscles, didn't seem to be affected. The eyebrow-less man grunted, "Impressive…for a bunch of green-as-grass genin."

The man suddenly fell to the ground as the sword became dislodged from the tree. He lied there for a second or two before springing up to his feet and glaring at the amused faces on the Konoha-nin (in the bushes a certain masked hunter-nin was laughing their ass off). Grumbling to himself the man picked up his sword and turned to face the Konoha-nins, but before he could say anything he brought his sword up to block a nerve-rattling kick delivered by one Maito Gai.

As he jumped backwards to put some distance between him and the sword-wielder, Gai shouted, "Hang back my students. This man is Momochi Zabuza, also known as the Demon of the Bloody Mist. At your current skill level he is too powerful for you three to take on by yourselves." The three genin just nodded as they each pulled out their respective weapons and moved into a defensive formation around Tazuna.

As Gai moved into the initial stance of the Goken style he quickly tried to work out a strategy, _'Alright then, Zabuza was once a member of the Seven Swordsmen so I should try to get him away from his sword. I should also so my best to avoid getting near water since that is most likely his elemental specialty. Yosh, time to let my Flames of Youth explode!'_

Without hesitation Gai rushed forward, pulling out of his weapon pouch a metal bar that he quickly spun, extending it into a staff. The Kiri nuke-nin brought his sword to bear, but wasn't fully prepared for the speed exhibited by the spandex-wearing jounin and thus wasn't able to figure out Gai's plan until it was too late.

In a display of extremely remarkable accuracy, Gai plunged his staff into the hole of Zabuza's blade and, using his greater strength, pulled the kiri-nuke-nin's zanbatou out of the man's grasp. Gai quickly flung the sword along with his staff a fair distance away and launched a blinding taijutsu combo that left purple bruises on the skin of the nuke-nin. The Konoha jounin finished off his combo with a powerful kick that sent Zabuza soaring out over to a nearby lake, something that made Gai mentally curse to himself as he rushed forward.

Righting himself in mid-air so he landed on his feet, Zabuza flashed through a series of handseals before he shouted, "Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!" A large dragon made out of water rose up out of the lake and charged straight for the charging Gai.

The black-haired jounin didn't falter in the slightest as he ran straight at the dragon. Right before the water construct could hit him though; Gai leapt up over the head and started to run along the water dragon's body **(a/n: you know, in all the stories I've read I've never seen anyone do this)**. Everyone, even Zabuza, was surprised at this extreme show of skill exhibited by the Konoha jounin.

Soon, Gai reached the still stationary Zabuza and launched a devastating roundhouse kick that sent the man flying headfirst into a tree. The ex-Kiri-nin started to stand up, but was stopped as three sebon needles entered his neck. The eyebrow-less shinobi froze up before he toppled backwards.

Gai cautiously approached the unmoving body after ascertaining that Isaribi hadn't been the one to throw the sebon needles. The black-haired jounin knelt down and quickly cast a glance around to make sure there wasn't any shinobi lying in wait. Once he was certain that there was no one in the immediate vicinity, Gai placed two fingers to the side of Zabuza's neck not pierced by needles and held them there to feel for a pulse. After waiting the required time Gai stood back up and gestured his students to come closer.

The three genin, with the client still being protected in the middle of the formation, were about a yard or so away from Zabuza's body when a melodic voice rang out, "I thank you for your assistance." The group from Konoha quickly turned to the source of the voice and saw a Kiri oinin standing on the branch of a nearby tree. "I have been after this one for quite some time."

Gai bow slightly, "I am glad to be of assistance oinin-san. If you wish I shall help you dispose of the body."

The hunter-nin shook his head, "I apologize, but I'm afraid I must decline. Kirigakure has recently given all of its oinin the order to make sure that shinobi from other nations are not present when the body of a Kiri nuke-nin is to be disposed of. This is because the tactical division of Kiri developed a new method of disposing of a body." The hunter-nin tilted his head and the others could hear the mirth in his voice, "They are very prideful and do not wish to share this secret with other nations."

Gai nodded his head, "I understand. We will be on our way now. Come my youthful students; let us leave this noble oinin to his work!" The genin nodded and the group of five took off.

Gai waited until they were on the other side of the lake and deep in the woods before he said, "We shall need those reinforcements." Upon seeing the confusion on his students' faces the black-haired jounin elaborated, "That oinin was lying when he declined my offer to destroy the body. No matter what technique you use or what village you hail from, an oinin is supposed to destroy the body on the spot as soon as they possibly can. The only reason I accepted the explanation was that I couldn't be sure he didn't have any allies lying in wait. Thus Zabuza is still alive and if I were him, I would get some back-up to make sure the job gets done. We shall need to be cautious and aware for the duration of the mission."

The three genin shared a serious look as they followed after their sensei. It looked like they would be getting more than they had bargained for with this mission.

****

**~ {Chapter End} ~**

**Unknown-nin345: Well that's the end of the fifth chapter. For those of you who will wonder about the Gai-Zabuza fight, here's my reasoning why it went the way it did. Kakashi (to me at least) is more a ninjutsu person and thus wouldn't hesitate to engage in a jutsu battle with Zabuza, plus Kakashi has always been a little arrogant.**

**Gai however is a taijutsu specialist, thus he went to eliminate the factors that played in Zabuza's favor: his sword and his jutsu. Plus, Gai strikes me as the type of person who takes all of his fights seriously, unlike a certain cyclops.**

**Alright, enough of that. Next chapter will reveal that OC that will get paired up with Naruto. And in regards to that I find myself in need of some help. The OC I plan to introduce will be a major flirt but, since I am a guy and haven't yet had the pleasure of a girlfriend, I have no clue how a flirty female would act. Thus, to all the readers out there who happen to be of the female persuasion, could you please send in some advice for me? It doesn't have be specific, just some general tips will do.**

**Mandalorian Translations:**

"Isaribi, aru'e?" = "Isaribi, enemies?"

"Elek, t'ad aru'e." = "Yes, two enemies."


End file.
